
Class ^ .LBiD^S^ 

Book __^_WiiiL__ 

Copyright N^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 



ART OF TEACHING 



^ fHanual 

FOR TEACHERS, SUPERINTENDENTS, TEACHERS' READING 

CIRCLES, NORMAL SCHOOLS, TRAINING CLASSES, 

AND OTHER PERSONS INTERESTED IN THE 

RIGHT TRAINING OF THE YOUNG 



BY 



EMERSON E. WHITE, A.M., LL.D. 

AUTHOR OF A SERIES OF MATHEMATICS, "ELEMENTS OF PEDAGOGY 
" SCHOOL MANAGEMENT," ETC. 



^^«4<: 






NEW YORK . : • CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



TO 



Lbioxs 



WHO IN THE PAST THIRTY YEARS HAVE LISTENED 

WITH KIND APrRECIATION TO THE AUTHOR'S 

LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPLES AND 

METHODS OF TEACHING 

E\)is Folume 

IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 



Copyright, 1901, by 
EMERSON E. WHITE. 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. 



ART of teaching. 
E-P 1 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS. 
Two ConEtt Received 

OCT. 19 1901 

CLASS « XXc. NO. 



PREFACE. 

This is not a treatise on education, or even on school 
education. Its purpose is limited to the study of one of 
the arts included in school education, — tJie art of teach- 
ing. Teaching is only a part of the comprehensive 
function of the school, but it is a very important part, 
and its mastery is essential to success in school train- 
ing. The narrower field has been chosen that its survey 
may be definite and helpful. 

An obvious advantage in the separate treatment of the 
art of teaching is its practical removal from the domain 
of philosophy, and, especially, the uncertain philosophy 
of education. Many conscientious teachers have been 
baffled in their earnest but vain attempts to apply some 
new philosophy of education in the details of actual 
teaching. It can but afford needed relief for such 
teachers to see clearly that philosophy sheds no help- 
ful light on the teaching process, the ends to be realized 
being subjective and immediate, not objective and ulti- 
mate. The guiding principles of the art of teaching 
are chiefly derived from psychology, and happily from 
its facts. 

In the study of methods it has been the author's aim 
to treat thoroughly and practically those that are ge- 
neric and comprehensive, presenting thern in the light of 
the fundamental principles of teaching and also in the 
light of the best practical experience. Special pains 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

have been taken to point out the functions and limita- 
tions of special methods, and this with the view of 
guarding teachers against the error of accepting them 
as general methods, and making them hobbies. 

But the treatise is not a manual of methods and 
devices. It is increasingly clear that what is needed to 
attain higher success in teaching is not the copying of 
pattern methods, but a clear grasp by teachers of the 
fundamental principles of their art, and a more intelli- 
gent and conscientious application of these guiding 
principles in practice. The vital need of school train- 
ing is to be grounded. To this end it has been the 
author's earnest endeavor to present what is fundamen- 
tal in the art of teaching in a clear, practical, and help- 
ful manner. 

The present volume supplements the author's earlier 
treatise, the Elements of Pedagogy, which has been 
so widely useful in estabhshing sound principles of 
teaching. It is also the complement of the author's 
School Management, chiefly devoted to school organ- 
ization and discipline and moral training ; and it is 
hoped that it may be at least equally useful in the im- 
provement of school training. The two volumes present 
the two most important elements in school education. 

Columbus, Ohio. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Introduction .... 
II. Ends in Teaching . 
A Trinity of Ends . 

III. A Trinity of Principles 

Principle One 
Principle Two 
Principle Three 

IV. A Trinity of Processes 

Teaching Exercises 
V. Methods of Instruction 

Objective Method . 

Indirect or Socratic Method . 

Direct or Telling Method 
VI. Other Methods of Instruction 

Analytic and Synthetic . 

Inductive and Deductive 

Concentration and Correlation 

Special Methods 
VI I. The Drill .... 

Abuses of the Drill 
VIII. The Test 

Modes of Testing . 
IX. Oral Instruction . 

Instruction Independent of Text-book 

Teacher's Preparation 

The Lesson .... 

Reproduction of Lesson by Pupils 
X. Instruction and Book Study 

Proper Use of Text-books 

Instruction based on Text-book 

The Art of Study . 

XI. Class Instruction . 

Merits and Advantages . 

XII. Teaching Pupils in Classes 

Methods of Calling on Pupils 
Consecutive Method . 
Promiscuous Method . 
Simultaneous Method . 

Class Teaching an Important Art 
5 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

XIII. Written Exercises 

Written Tests 

XIV. Promotion Examinations 

Teaching Tests 
XV. Primary Reading 

Principles and Methods 
XVI. First Lessons in Reading . 
Union of Methods 
Second and Third Reader Grades 
Reading in Higher Grades 
XVII. Language Training 
Guiding Principles 
Ends and Principles 
XVIII. Language Training {continued') 
Materials and Methods . 
Outline of Synthetic Exercises 
The Rural School 
XIX. Arithmetic .... 
First Lessons in Number 
The Primary Course . 
XX. Arithmetic {continued) 
The Elementary Course 
Grammar School Course 
Introduction to Algebra 
XXI. Geography .... 
Ends and Courses 
Oral Course in Home Geography 
XXII. Geography {continued) 

The Elementary Book Course 
Study of the Grand Divisions 
Map Drawing 

General Review by Comparison 
Course in Physical Geography 
XXIII. Other Branches . 
Biography 

United States History 
Civics . 
Economics 
Physiology . 



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304 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 

CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

Education is a complex process. In its widest sense 
it includes all those processes, activities, and influences 
that occasion subjective changes in man, Education 
whether these changes are physical, mental, Defined, 
moral, or spiritual. The home, the school, the church, 
civil society, the state, industry, physical environment, 
and all else that touches man, are, in this wide sense, 
educational agencies, and each contributes something 
to the complex result called education. 

'' Men are educated," says Dr. Fitch, of England, 
" from infancy to the grave by all the sights and sounds, 
the joys and sorrows, which they encounter, by the char- 
acter and behavior of their friends, the nature of their 
surroundings, and by the books they read." 

'* In its largest acceptance," says John Stuart Mill, 
" education comprehends even the indirect effects pro- 
duced on character and on the human faculties by things 
the direct purposes of which are different, by laws, by 
forms of government, by the industrial arts, by modes 
of social life ; even by physical facts not dependent on 
the human will, by cHmate, soil, and local position." 

7 



8 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Dr. W. T. Harris defines education as ''that develop- 
ment of the individual, effected through his intellect and 
will, which enables him to combine with his fellow-men 
helpfully in performing the functions of the institutions 
of society, family, civil society, state, and church, only 
a part, although an important part, of this education 
being received in the school ; other essential parts being 
received through the family, the industrial community, 
the political state, and the church." 

Dr. B. A. Hinsdale defines education in its widest 
sense as " the process of transformation wrought in a 
man by all the agents and powers of whatever kind that 
act on him from the cradle to the grave." 

It is thus seen that the term education has, in its wid- 
est significance, a large and indefinite content,— so large, 
indeed, that no writer on education has been 

More 

Limited able to get anything helpful out of it. In 
Meaning, qj-^j^j- |-q \xq,2X cducatiou either scientifically or 
practically, the term must be used in a more limited and 
definite sense. Mr. Mill narrows the term to include 
"whatever we do for ourselves, and whatever is done 
for us by others, for the express purpose of bringing us 
nearer to the perfection of our nature," and then, for his 
immediate purpose (the St. Andrews address), he Hmits 
the term to ''the culture which each generation purposely 
gives to those who are to be its successor in order to 
quahfy them for at least keeping up and, if possible, for 
raising the improvement which has been attained." 

" Education in its ideal or formal aspect," says Dr. 
W. H. Payne, "aims at the realization of the typical 
man, and comprises all the agencies that can be brought 
under human control for the attainment of this end ; " 
but, as a basis for the science of pedagogy, he narrows 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

the term to so much of the art of education ** as falls 
within the province of the school." 

But even school education is a very complex process, 
including as it does all the activities and influences that 
enter into school hfe. Some of these factors school 
are designed and purposely directed ; others Education, 
are spontaneous, and still others are personal and uncon- 
scious, as the influence of teacher and fellow-pupils, 
physical environment, etc. Dr. Bain found that educa- 
tion limited to the work of the school needed " a little 
more paring and rounding to give it scientific form," 
and so in his "Science of Education" he treats educa- 
tion " as the arts and methods employed by the school 
master." 

Most writers on education dodge all attempts at defi- 
nition. To the reader is left the discovery of the sense 
in which the term is used, not always an easy task, and 
especially when the term is used by the same writer in 
different senses. Instead of definition, writers on the 
philosophy of education usually work from some ulti- 
mate end to be attained, as '' the harmonious and equable 
evolution of the human powers"; "the preparation of 
man for complete living " ; " the moral revelation of 
the world," etc. 

The term teaching has a much narrower meaning 
than education ; much narrower than school education ; 
narrower, indeed, than school training. Teach- Teaching 
ing is one of the arts included in education. defined. 
Teaching may be defined as the occasioning of those 
activities in the learner that result in knowledge, power, 
and skill. This is the definite sense in which the word 
is used when one speaks of teaching history or botany 
or the arts of reading, writing, language, etc. Teach- 



10 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

ing always involves two factors, a teacher and a pupil, 
the latter endowed with the power of responsive activ- 
ity, as well as self-activity, and hence teacJiablc. The 
teacher may act upon the pupil directly, in person ; or 
indirectly, as by means of a book. The determining 
element in the teaching process is the piipiVs activity. 
The teacher is only the occasioner of this activity. It 
is thus seen that teaching is only a part of school educa- 
tion. It is, however, an important part, and its mastery 
is essential to success in school work. 

It is not meant that the teaching process is in practice 
always separate from the other elements of school train- 
Teaching ing. This is no more true than that memory 
as an Art. qj. e^^otion is a separate state of conscious- 
ness. There are, however, most important pedagogical 
advantages in the separate consideration of teaching as 
an art. Among these advantages is the fact that teach- 
ing is thus practically removed from the domain of 
philosophy, and especially the uncertain philosophy 
of education. 

Philosophy seeks ultimate ends, universal principles, 
and these are too remote and comprehensive to be a 
Function of practical guide in any of the definite arts. 
Philosophy. ^^^ particularly the art of teaching. '* Phi- 
losophy bakes no bread." It may determine the ultimate 
ends of human existence, and the knowledge essential 
to their realization, but it cannot tell Jioiv this knozvledge 
ca?i be taught. The method of teaching a human mind 
knowledge involves the process by which the mind 
acquires such knowledge, and for this we must go to 
psychology. Philosophy has its pedagogic value in de- 
termining the ultimate ends of education, and thus the 
general function of the school, its general course of 



INTRODUCTION. II 

Study, etc., but it throws little light upon the teaching 
process. ** No philosophical study of ultimate ques- 
tions," says Professor Royce of Harvard University, 
"has any direct bearing upon the technical problems 
of educational methods or upon the similarly practical 
problems of any other art." It seems increasingly clear 
that the so-called philosophies of education, now clamor- 
ing for recognition, will never prove a helpful guide 
in the art of teaching, whatever may be their value in the 
other functions of the school, and whatever may be their 
scholastic value to the student. 

It may be true that philosophy is far-reaching enough 
to touch all human conduct and endeavor ; that " one's 
view of the world " is really embodied in his ^,., 

•' Pnilosopny 

life. It does not, however, follow that all and 
men have an intelligent view of the world, 
much less are consciously conforming their lives to such 
a view. It is certain that the arts are not thus guided. 
It is more poetic than true to say that the shoemaker's 
view of the world shapes his last and guides the process 
of making a shoe. The same is true in the art of 
teaching. The ends that guide in the teaching pro- 
cess are hnmediatc, not ultimate, and the highest suc- 
cess may be reached in the absence of philosophic 
knowledge. 

The principles on which the art of teaching is based 
are scientific. Every branch of knowledge, every art, 
has its principles, its science, and so there are philosophy 
many sciences. Thus we have a science of and 
chemistry, a science of mathematics, a sci- 
ence of music, etc. Philosophy seeks for the ulti- 
mate unity, the final cause of all science, and hence 
there are many sciences, but only one true philosophy. 



12 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Philosophy is what Fichte aptly calls *' the science of 
science." 

It is fortunate that the guiding principles of the 
teaching art are not the ultimates of philosophy, for few 
Philosophic teachers are capable of grasping, much 

Insight. iggg Qf applying, such principles. Philo- 
sophic insight is the highest form of the reason, and 
without this insight philosophy is empty and vain. 
Certainly no teacher is helped by familiarity with 
philosophic terms and phrases which have no definite 
content. On the contrary, many earnest teachers have 
been confused and muddled by attempts to embody 
some new philosophy of education in actual teaching. 
Moreover, if philosophy were the only practical guide 
in teaching, only philosophers could be successful 
teachers, and this would seem to exclude those who 
do not know the tnie philosophy ; and who can be 
certain here.? The history of philosophy presents 
one continued struggle of philosophic systems, one 
philosophy succeeding another, the newer often re- 
turning to the older, thus presenting what has been 
aptly termed '' the cycles of philosophy." Several 
distinct schools of philosophy are now contending for 
the control of American education. 

We are not discrediting the value of philosophy in 
determining the ultimate ends and function of school 

Value of education. All systems of education are 
Philosophy, based on some philosophic end, and there 
may be as many systems as there are ends that can be 
made philosophic ultimates. The acceptance of a 
wrong end results in a wrong system of education ; and 
the acceptance of narrow and partial ends results in 
narrow and partial systems. Indeed, all partial systems 



INTR on UC 1 ION. 1 3 

of education have their origin in the acceptance of a 
partial end as an ultimate. Shallow philosophizing is 
the source of hobbies and fads. Our earnest contention 
is that philosophy throws no guiding Hght on the teach- 
ing process. What could be done in actual teaching 
with the philosophic principle (if it be one) that '* the 
end of education is to put man in right relations to the 
universe " "t The results of the teaching art are wrought 
in tJie pupil} and hence they are subjective and immedi- 
ate — not objective and ultimate. In actual teaching, 
even the philosopher must set before himself and strive 
to attain immediate ends. 

We thus reach the important fact that the guiding 
principles of tJie teaching art are derived from psycho logy ^ 
and happily from its facts. It will be shown later that 
these principles can be clearly stated and intelligently 
applied. 

It may be objected that the necessary psychical facts 
for a science of teaching are not yet known ; that the 
advent of such a science must wait for a new psychol- 
ogy. It is not claimed that all psychical facts are now 
known ; that there is nothing more to be learned in psy- 
chology. Not only experiment and observation but intro- 
spection may add new facts and widen and otherwise 
modify facts now known. Psychology is a pro- science of 
gressive science ; but it is now a science, and as Psychology, 
such presents a body of facts respecting physical activ- 
ity and growth of fundamental importance in education. 
To assert the contrary is to raise a strong presumption 
that there will never be such a science as psychology, 

1 " Each object and each situation, every act of man and every refusal to 
act causes a reaction in the soul educative in its effect.^'' — Dr. W. T. 
Harris in " Psychologic Foundations of Education." 



14 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

and, as a consequence, there will never be a psychical 
basis for the art of teaching. 

No one of the new methods of psychical research has 
set aside a psychical fact discovered by introspection 
No New and attested by experience, and no objective 
Psychology, or physiological discovery has dimmed the 
clear light of consciousness. While new facts are discov- 
ered, the certitude of the facts of consciousness remains 
unimpeached. Modern psychologists who have given 
much attention to the so-called physiological psychology, 
are now affirming that the physiological laboratory is 
not discrediting or superseding the ascertained facts of 
consciousness ; that there is no new psychology in the 
sense in which the term is often used. The term new 
when applied to psychology is inclusive of the old, not 
exclusive. The new psychology includes the facts of 
consciousness or it has no message. 

In the introductory chapter of his *' Talks to Teach- 
ers on Psychology," Professor William James, of Har- 
vard University, says : — 

" So I say at once that in my humble opinion there is no new 
psychology worthy of the name. There is nothing but the old 
psychology, which began in Locke's time, plus a little physiology of 
brain and sense and theory of evolution and a few refinements 
of introspective detail for the most part without adaptation to the 
teacher's use. It is only the fundamental conceptions of psychology 
which are of real value to the teacher, and they, apart from the 
aforesaid theory of evolution, are very far from being new." 

Professor Royce, of Harvard University, bears sim- 
ilar testimony. In an able paper read before the 
National Council of Education in 1898 he shows that 
psychology was never exclusively introspective, while 
introspection is a notable factor in the psychology of 



INTR OD UC TION. 1 5 

to-day.i The ''psychology of the armchair" is largely 
a figment of the imagination. 

Modern psychology is an organization of psychical 
facts, whether old or hew, and howsoever ascertained. 
Such modern psychologists as Porter, Hoff- Modem 
ding, Ladd, and James survey the entire field Psychology, 
of psychical research. Whatever is known of the activi- 
ties, growth, states, and susceptibilities of the human 
soul is appropriated by modern psychology. Hence its 
value as a basis for the science of education, and espe- 
cially for the science of teaching. From the psychical 
facts thus presented it is not difficult to derive funda- 
mental principles of teaching, principles which constitute 
a science of teaching and are guiding and fruitful in 
practice. Even Professor Miinsterberg, of Harvard, 
who is bearing such emphatic and repeated testimony 
against the value of the laboratory study of physiological 
psychology to the teacher in actual school work, admits 
that psychology has "some of its best fruits for the 
work of education." Whatever may be the practical 
value of laboratory psychical research to the teacher, 
the known facts of psychology are undeniably of great 
value in determining the guiding principles of the teach- 
ing art. 

There is nothing gained in pedagogy by attempts to 
make distinctions in the value of different kinds of 
psychical knowledge. Whether psychical 

r 1 1 .1 11 Value of 

facts belong to rational psychology or em- Psychical 
pirical psychology or physiological psychology knowledge. 
is not material, provided they are facts^ and as such are 
attested by consciousness and experience. 

1 Proceedings of the National Educational Association, Washington, 
D.C., 1898, pp. 554-570- 



1 6 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

It is not claimed that the principles of teaching are 
all derived from psychology. While this furnishes 
what may be called the basal principles of the teaching 
art, other principles of practical value are furnished by 
other sciences. 

The science of ethics sheds a clear Hght upon the 
training of the will, including the use of motives, the 
freedom of the will, etc. Whatever may be 
true of the influence of true methods of teach- 
ing on moral character, it is certain that ethical condi- 
tions modify intellectual training and hmit its efficiency. 
Indeed, the psychology from which the art of teaching 
derives its guiding principles clearly includes the science 
of ethics. 

Modern physiology includes facts that condition and 

limit psychical as well as physical activity, and so have 

an important place in the science of teach- 

ysio ogy. .^^^^ Physiological research is adding to our 
knowledge these and other facts that must be con- 
sidered in school training. It is increasingly seen 
that physiology has a message of great value in peda- 
gogy. But it must ever be remembered that psychi- 
cal and physiological facts are not identical. No 
fact is both psychical and physiological, though the one 
may be related to the other. The phenomena of the 
human body may be susceptible of physical testing and 
measurement, but psychical phenomena have no mate- 
rial quality or equivalent. Ideas, feelings, and pur- 
poses cannot be measured like physical substances 
and energies. Professor Miinsterberg and other 
psychologists have clearly shown that psychical and 
physical phenomena have no common quahty or 
measure. 



INTR OD UCTION. \ y 

The value of psychology as a guide in teaching is at 
present most evident in primary instruction. The recent 
happy changes in methods of teaching young Primary 
children have been effected in the light of a instruction, 
truer knowledge of child life, or, if preferred, a truer 
child psychology. Pestalozzi, Froebel, and other re- 
formers of elementary education derived their principles 
from what they believed to be known of the activity and 
development of the soul in childhood. 

The difference between primary and advanced methods 
of teaching correspond to the difference in what Pro- 
fessor James calls *' the behavior of the 
mind " in childhood and adult life. No Advanced 
psychical theory has been the source of more ^^thods. 
error in teaching than the assumption that the mind of a 
child differs from the mind of an adult in no respect 
except in strength ; that children are little adults. This 
led to the old pedagogical error that young pupils 
in the primary school may be taught the same kinds 
of knowledge and in essentially the same way as 
pupils in the high school ; that the only real difference 
between primary and advanced methods of teaching is 
the length of lessons ; that is, the amount of knowledge 
taught in a given exercise. 

There is a surprising revival of this serious error in 
the recent tendency to force down into lower grades 
subjects that have taxed the powers of unwise 
much older pupils. What is needed to cor- Tendency, 
rect this unwise tendency is a clearer recognition of 
the fact that the mind of the child differs from the 
mind of the adult, not simply in strength, but in the 
relative activity and energy • of the several mental 
powers ; the perceptive powers, for example, being more 

ART OF TEACHING — 2 



1 8 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

active in infancy than the thought powers.^ The mental 
condition of pupils as they advance from the kindergar- 
ten to the high school is characterized by changes in the 
relative activity of the several mental powers. 

It is evident that methods and processes of teaching 
must be adapted to these psychical changes; and here 
Adaptation the vital question is not what pupils can be 
to Changes, f orccd or trained to do in the successive grades, 
but what they ought to do in their psychical and physical 
condition. It follows that true primary methods of 
teaching involve a knowledge of the psychical as well 
as the physical nature of children. 

It is a question whether observation or insight has con- 
tributed most to this knowledge. What is known as child 
study has no meanine: except as the phenom- 

Child study. \ , ,. 7T,. 

ena observed are correctly interp7'eted, and this 
can be done only in the clear light of consciousness ; 
and here insight is more important than outsight. The 
biographers of Froebel leave no doubt that his marvelous 
insight into child nature was made possible by the memo- 
ries of his own childhood. It seems probable that Froe- 
bel's memory put back in time some of the experiences 
of his early youth, otherwise he was an extraordinary 
child. Few memories of the first four years of infancy 
appear in later consciousness, few associations being 
possible.^ Not only is this true, but, as a consequence, 
it is difficult to interpret the observations on children 
made at this early age, and much more difficult to make 
them the basis of a scientific generahzation. Moreover, 
it is not possible to apply what is shown in one period 

1 " Elements of Pedagogy," pp. 84-93. 

2 " We have a large group of psychic facts that vanish long before 
maturity is attained, and leave no sign." — Dr. G. Stanley Hall. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

of child life to another period. The changes in child 
experiences are too great. It is doubtful whether the 
psychic manifestations of children before the age of five 
throw any clear light on the period of school training. 

It further seems evident that child study can give 
results of scientific value only when carried on by observ- 
ers specially fitted for the difficult work. No 

^ •' Scientific 

one but a practical psychologist is competent vaiue of 
to make a scientific study of a child, and still ^^"'^ ^'"^y- 
higher abihty and attainments are required to gener- 
alize the results of such study. In an article in the 
Forimt (August, 1900), Dr. G. Stanley Hall states that 
child study is now represented by two thousand books 
and articles well worth reading, " not comprising the 
yet larger mass of chaff." If more than half of the 
titles on child study are, in the judgment of so eminent 
an expert as Dr. Hall, ''chaff,'' what must be true of the 
still greater mass of unpublished papers, reports, etc., 
which have had a hearing in the past ten years } Has 
any expert yet appeared who is competent to detect 
and weed out the errors even in the titles declared by 
Dr. Hall to be worth reading } To most psychologists 
this seems an impossible task. The only course that 
promises success in obtaining reliable data for scientific 
purposes is to exclude all observations not made by com- 
petent experts. To the lay mind there is so far small 
promise that child study will ever give us a new psy- 
chology, and even the promised child psychology is in 
the future, and seemingly not a very near future. But 
we are told that "this is an expert problem, and only 
the opinions of experts have value." 

But whatever may be true of the scientific results of 
child study, as now carried on, it is throwing some light, 



20 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

though not always dear or certain, on the training of 
the young. It is doing a great service by calling 
Its Practical needed attention to the physical defects of 

Value. children, particularly those of sight and 
hearing, and many children thus afflicted are being 
relieved. It is disclosing the physical conditions of 
attention, the signs of fatigue,^ and other physiological 
facts of practical value, and it is giving new emphasis 
to the old truth that a knowledge of the individual 
pupil, not necessarily scientific, but personal and sym- 
pathetic, must guide in his training. But the most 
important results yet attained are indirect and inci- 
dental. These include the changed attitude and spirit 
of teachers, especially primary teachers, toward their 
pupils, and the increased mutual interest between the 
home and the school. 

Since it is conceded by the best judges that the great 
mass of even recorded child observations are not trust- 
worthy, it behooves teachers to be slow in 
their attempts to apply these observations in 
the training of children. It would seem wiser to wait 
until experts, who may be competent to separate the 
wheat from the chaff, have put reliable results into 
usable form. It will certainly be wise for teachers to 
pay little attention to generalizations based on syllabi 
averages, howsoever attractive they may appear. 

Whatever may be the sources of psychical science, its 
facts hold a fundamental relation to the art of teaching. 

1 The reported results of experiments to determine the facts respecting 
the mental fatigue of school children have been somewhat discredited by 
the more recent experiments of Dr. Thorndike {^Psychological Review^ 
November, 1900). It is doubtful whether we are yet in possession of any 
nexv facts of practical value in arranging the school program. 



IN TR ODUC TION. 2 1 

Psychology not only has light for the teacher, but its 
light is essential and guiding. It is an axiom of peda- 
gogy that teaching, both in subject-matter and method, 
must be adapted to the capability of the Axiom of 
learner, but such adaptation is not possible Pedagogy, 
if the teacher be ignorant of the capability of his pupil. 
He must know not only the subject-matter to be taught, 
but also how the pupil can best acquire such knowledge. 
For these guiding facts he must go to psychology. 

Every rational method of teaching presupposes that 
the pupil acquires knowledge in known ways, and that 
the several mental powers are developed in a known 
order. It is not claimed that these ways and this order 
are perfectly known. Modern psychical research is 
throwing new light upon these facts, so fundamental 
in teaching, and there is promise of clearer and fuller 
knowledge. Psychology has not spoken its last word. 



CHAPTER II. 
ENDS IN TEACHING. 

The first question in the art of teaching is the end to 
be attained. This is not only the first but the essential 
question. It largely determines means and methods 
and is the decisive test of their value. This will be 
made evident by a glance at several of the more obvious 
relations of the ends sought to the teaching process. 

1. The end to be attained in teaching guides the pro- 
cess. There can be no skill in any art in the absence of 
End guides definite aims. The more clearly the end to 
the Process, "^g attained is seen, the greater the inspiring 
interest and the higher the skill. This is true in the 
simplest arts, as the pitching of a ball or a quoit, and 
it is eminently true in the art of teaching, the art of 
arts. All aimless teaching is poor, whatever may be 
the teacher's zeal. The end is the guiding ideal in 
teaching. Moreover, the result to be attained in a 
teaching exercise must be seen from the beginning, and 
every step of the process be thus guided. This will give 
unity to the exercise and secure concentration of effort, 
a necessary condition of successful teaching. Scattera- 
tion is not teaching. 

As already shown (p. lo), ultimate ends may deter- 
mine the comprehensive function of the school and its 
general course of training, but such ends are too objec- 



ENDS IN TEACHING. 23 

tive and remote to enter helpfully into the teaching 
process. The guiding ends in teaching must be definite, 
immediate, and subjective ; that is, they must Guiding 
be results wrought in the pupil. Moreover, ^"'^^• 
they must be true ends. A wrong end is always sub- 
versive of effort whatever may be its skill. 

2. The end to be attained in teaching is a ^neasnre 
of success. A teaching exercise that attains the results 
sought is so far successful. In the absence Measure of 
of a definite end there can be no sure evidence success, 
of success, and, as a consequence, the satisfaction and 
inspiration which flow from conscious success are want- 
ing. The teacher needs a sure and satisfying evidence 
of success, and this not only for encouragement, but 
also to make further progress possible. 

It is not easy to overstate the importance of such a 
measure of success in teaching. At the close of every 
exercise the teacher needs to know whether he has suc- 
ceeded or failed, and the degree of his success or failure. 
This is essential to the taking of the next step wisely. 
Aimless teaching is blind and sorry plodding. The 
teacher needs not only guidance, but also inspiration. 
In the absence of such inspiration teaching is " the 
sorriest of trades." It may be added that, while even 
the successful attainment of a wrong end in teaching is 
failure, the failure is in the wrong end sought, and not 
in its attainment. 

3. The end is the sure test of methods and devices. 
The importance of such a test is obvious. Ingenious 
and earnest teachers are devising new ways Test of 
of teaching, and many of these devices are devices. 
pubUshed to help other teachers. Indeed, our present 
school literature is a swamp of methods and devices, 



24 • THE ART OF TEACHING. 

some excellent, many indifferent, and not a few silly. 
What is to be done with them ? It would certainly be 
unwise for teachers to ignore what other teachers are 
doing to improve their work. Better methods of teach- 
ing are both possible and desirable, and whatever thought 
and ingenuity can do in the way of improved devices 
should certainly be encouraged and utilized. Every im- 
proved teaching device or appliance is a contribution to 
school progress. 

But how is the worth of new methods and devices 

to be determined t Certainly, not primarily by trial. It 

is often claimed that the only test of a method 

Not by Trial. ... .... 

or device m teachmg is its actual use m the 
schoolroom. No test has been more misleading than 
this. It is marvelous what Httle children can be trained 
to do by an enthusiastic and skillful teacher. The 
highest interest and even enthusiasm may be awakened 
by exercises that violate the most fundamental princi- 
ples of child training. The sorriest folHes that have 
disgraced American teaching have come into the schools 
through the door of trial. Teachers were able " to work 
them " as mechanisms, and so they were exploited as 
devices that '' work well." 

Every true method of teaching will work well in 
practice under right conditions, but the primary test of 
its trueness must lie back of its trial. The decisive fact 
is not what children can do under skillful stimulation, 
but what they ought to do, and this cannot be deter- 
mined by experiment measured by interest or zeal. It 
is feared that some of the experimenting on children in 
our schools is well-nigh criminal. It is an important 
function of the science of pedagogy to protect children 
from the experimenter in devices and fads. 



ENDS IN TEACHING. 2$ 

The sure test of methods and devices, which should 
precede their actual trial, is t/ie crucial test crucial Test 
of end. Every new method or device asking °^ ^"*^- 
for trial should be made to stand and answer at least 
three questions, to wit : 

1. WJiat is its end? What is the result it purposes 
to attain ? If a method or device has no definite pur- 
pose, it needs no trial to condemn it. If its end is obvi- 
ous, then a second question must be put to it. 

2. Is this end a true school result ? It is clearly not 
enough that a teaching device has a known end. It 
must be a true end for the school. It must have a 
fruitful relation to what is to follow in the course. A 
device that has no vital relation to the fundamental 
purpose of school training has no school value. It may 
interest, even tip-toe, children, may ''work well" as an 
exercise, and yet have no true place in school training. 
A third question remains. 

3. Is this the best way of reaching the proposed end? 
It is not enough that a device be a way or even a good 
way of reaching a result. It should be the "Get the 
best way known to the teacher. In teaching, ^"*-" 
the best methods and devices are poor enough. Here 
the aim should be to "get the best," and use the best. 
This aim is largely personal. The teacher must seek 
and use the methods which are best/(?r him. This in- 
volves not only the teacher's ability, training, and experi- 
ence, but also the conditions that limit his work. The 
teacher in the rural school may be baffled by methods 
which may work well in the highly organized city school. 
The teacher in the normal school, who teaches only one 
subject, may successfully use devices which cannot be 
used by teachers who teach daily several subjects. An 



26 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

elaborate scientific method of teaching can be success- 
fully used only by teachers with adequate scientific train- 
ing. Not every warrior can fight in Saul's armor. Some 
may best use David's sHng. The untrained soldier can 
best use a simple weapon ; and the untrained teacher 
can best use simple methods. 

It would not be difficult to fill pages with applications 

of this test of end to methods and devices that have had 

. ,. . their day or are now on trial in American 

Application -^ 

to New schools. Many new methods now noisily 
Devices, exploited would fail to pass such a crucial 
test, if intelHgently applied, and many now discarded 
"systems" would never have possessed the schools if 
they had been obliged to enter through such a door. 
The path of school progress is strewn with discarded 
hobbies which in their day had no true or even definite 
school purpose, no merit, indeed, but novelty. Un- 
pedagogical devices have appeared in every branch of 
study and in every school art. They have abounded in 
reading and arithmetic. There will be opportunity later 
to apply this decisive test of end to several methods and 
devices now or recently claiming attention. 

A Trinity of Ends. 

While teaching exercises have their special ends, no 
two being precisely the same, these apparently numer- 
ous results all fall into three distinct classes, 

Three Fun- ^ ^ ' 

damentai which may be designated as knozvledge, power^ 
^"^^' and skill. Every true teaching exercise has 
one or more of these results in some form as its end or 
purpose ; and hence they are properly regarded as the 
tJiree fundamental ends of teacJiiiig. These three ends 
may be studied separately with great practical advantage, 



ENDS IN TEACH INC. 2/ 

and guiding principles of teaching may thus be dis- 
covered. It is fortunate that the fundamental ends of 
teaching are so few in number, for in multiplicity of aims 
general principles and methods are likely to be lost. 

1. One of the fundamental ends to be attained in teach- 
ing is knowledge \ that is, to lead the pupil to know 
something which the teacher desires him to 
know. The teaching process is complete 
when the pupil has acquired the desired knowledge. 
Knowledge is acquired by the act of knowing, and hence 
to occasion this knowing activity is the purpose of the 
teaching process. This is true whatever be the nature 
of the knowledge taught, whether so-called ''real" 
knowledge or information ; whether original knowledge 
or recorded knowledge. 

It ought to go without saying that the more clearly 
and definitely the knowledge taught is known by the 
teacher, the more skillful and effective will be Teacher's 
the teaching. Knowledge cannot be taught Knowledge, 
by one who does not himself know what he essays to 
teach. The first requisite in successful teaching is a 
thorough and fresh knowledge of the subjects taught, 
a principle that must be assumed in all consideration of 
methods. 

This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of the 
kinds of knowledge that should be taught in school. 
This question properly belongs to the course Kinds of 
of study, and this involves a consideration of Knowledge, 
the more ultimate ends of school education. It must 
suffice to say here that a true course of school instruc- 
tion includes, (i) knowledge necessary as a means of 
acquiring other knowledge, that is, elementary knowl- 
edge ; (2) knowledge ws^^iwX for guidance in life's activi- 



28 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

ties and duties ; and (3) knowledge which is a source of 
human happiness^ a means of increasing human enjoy- 
ment. 

Since knowledge has its successive phases, corre- 
sponding to the phases of knowing, the elementary facts 
in every branch must be known before the higher or 
more advanced knowledge can be taught or acquired. 
The elementary school is the place where the pupils 
should acquire primary ideas and facts, and on the clear- 
ness and accuracy of this elementary knowledge will 
largely depend their future progress. 

The utility of knowledge for guidance in life is a 
much wider question than the practical value of its facts 
utility of ii^ the work of hfe, *'in getting a living." 
Knowledge, fhc pupil is to bc more than an artisan, 
more than a winner of food, clothing, and shelter. He 
is also to be the head and guide of the family, a mem- 
ber of society, a citizen of the state, a subject of divine 
government, and out of these relations flow obligations 
and duties of the highest importance. The knowledge 
taught in school must promote not only physical, but 
also moral, social, and civil well-being, and it must guide 
and inspire man in the discharge of life's higher as well 
as lower duties.^ 

2. Another end of teaching is the development of 
power. The term power may include physical or mental 

1 These diversions have been made to bear testimony against that nar- 
row utilitarianism which is clamoring for the grooving of school training 
to life's toil ; which would exclude from the school all training that seeks 
to exalt and enrich human life. The American school faces a civilization 
which confronts man with interests and duties demanding not only wide 
information, but powers equal to the great problems that press upon him 
for solution, a civilization in which intelligence and righteousness are vital, 
and character the supreme need. 



ENDS IN TEACHING, 29 

or moral or spiritual power, but, for our present purpose, 
the term is used chiefly in the sense of mental or intel- 
lectual power. But even mental power is too Mental 
general in its meaning to serve as a guide Power, 
in a teaching process. The teacher must have in mind 
the special power to be developed, or, what may be 
clearer, the special direction in which mental power is 
to be trained. There is little helpful guidance in the 
vague notion that the purpose of a teaching exercise is 
to develop mental strength or bigness. A training 
exercise must be guided by an aim more definite than 
this. Indefinite activity does not give definite power. 

While there are many special directions in which power 
may be trained in a teaching exercise, there are three 
directions of fundamental importance. These Three 
are (i) the acquisition of knowlege, by ob- directions, 
servation and thought; (2) the expression of knowledge 
by language, drawing, etc. ; and (3) its application or 
use. So far as the training of power is related to knowl- 
edge, it takes the direction of acquisition or expression or 
application. A given teaching exercise may in its prog- 
ress take all three of these directions, and will usually 
take the first two, but one should be the leading or 
central aim. 

The principles that guide in the development of power 
in these three directions will be presented in the next 
chapter. It must suffice here to say that the p ^^^ ^^ 
power to acquire knowledge is trained only acquire 
by acqtiiring knowledge^ and the clearer the "°^ ^ ^^' 
knowledge acquired, the more fruitful will be the train- 
ing. The power to know is not trained by mental tip- 
toeing that reaches nothing or by repeating words that 
express only another's knowledge. The power to acquire 



30 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

knowledge from books is trained by book study and 
mastery. 

The special weakness of the old-time school was its 

failure to train its pupils in the clear expression of their 

knowledge. They memorized and repeated 

express language, but had little training in telling 
Knowledge. ^^^^ ^y^^^ \xv^^ in their own words. This 

weakness still exists in the schools, though there has 
been encouraging improvement in language training in 
recent years. The examiners of appHcants for admis- 
sion to our colleges bear testimony to the inability of 
many of these applicants to tell or to write what they 
know in clear, not to say accurate, language ; and yet 
these young people, as a class, represent our best 
secondary schools. Experience shows that it is not 
enough that expression be made an incidental aim in 
teaching knowledge. It must be made an essential end 
in every knowledge exercise. It will be shown later 
(Chap. XVII.) that there must also be separate, well- 
graded exercises for the training of expression, exer- 
cises in which facile expression is the chief purpose. 

The school affords only limited opportunities for the 

practical application of knowledge, and yet in nearly 

every branch of study, if not in all, there are 

apply facts and principles that can be applied 
Knowledge. ^}^^^ Icamcd, and such application makes 
clearer the pupil's knowledge of them. This is specially 
true in the school arts. Indeed, the knowledge taught 
in these arts is chiefly for guidance in practice. 

3. The third end of teaching is tJie training of skilly 
the imparting of readiness and facility in doing with 
a special end. This is the chief aim in teaching the 
school arts, as reading, language, number, writing, 



ENDS IN TEACHING. 3 1 

drawing, etc. The training of skill in these arts con- 
sumes more than half of the teacher's time in our elemen- 
tary schools, and in the attainment of no other Training of 
end is there such a sad waste of teaching skiu. 
effort. This is sometimes explained by the assumption 
that children have little interest in exercises that are 
designed to impart skill in doing ; that knowledge is 
the basis of the child's interest. On the contrary, the 
desire for efficiency in action is one of the Desire for 
strongest impulses of childhood. All the skiii. 
child's powers, physical and psychical, are developed 
by activity, and the impulse to action is nature's means 
to secure needed growth. Indeed, every desire of the 
soul has as its correlate the meeting of some human 
want or need. The correlate of activity is efficiency or 
skill, and hence as a means to skill activity is made 
a pleasure and a delight. No activity affords a child 
keener interest or higher satisfaction than that which 
gives him conscious skill. In all art exercises skill should 
be the central, inspiring purpose. 

It is to be noted that skill, as herein used, is some- 
thing more than mere facility in action. It is facility 
in realizing special ends or ideals. It is true skiiiasan 
that skill is a form of power, but it is power ^"'*- 
made ready and facile in action. Skill is, in a strict 
sense, a quality of the action and not of the power that 
acts. There are special advantages in treating skill as 
a distinct end of teaching. 



CHAPTER III. 

A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 

It is herein assumed that teaching is an art, and as 
such has its fundamental principles which determine its 
methods. It is also assumed that a knowledge of these 
principles is essential to the highest success in teaching. 

It is a happy fact that the guiding principles of the 

art of teaching are few in number. There are few 

Guiding teachers who can intelligently apply many 

^ew'al" principles in teaching, but there are many 

Simple. teachers who can successfully apply a few 
principles which they clearly understand. It is also 
fortunate that the guiding principles in teaching are 
simple, and can be clearly stated. 

It has been shown in the previous chapter that there 
are three comprehensive ends to be attained in the 
teaching process, to wit : knowledge, poiveVy and skill. 
How can these ends be attained .? How can knowledge 
be taught t How can power be developed .? How can 
skill be trained or acquired .? The answers to these 
three questions give us the three guiding principles of 
the teaching art. 

I. Knowledge. 

Since no primary idea can be defined, it is not pos- 
sible to define the act called knoiving. Suffice it to say 

32 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 33 

that to know an object is to be certain that it is. Certi- 
tude characterizes all acts of knowing, but not equally. 
There are different degrees of certainty in knowing. 
A high degree of certainty gives what has Degrees of 
been called real knozvledge. The degree of certitude, 
certainty that depends on the testimony or authority 
of other minds gives us information. Between so-called 
real knowledge and information are varying degrees of 
certitude. But for our present purpose it is not neces- 
sary to make a distinction between knowledge and in- 
formation. The guiding principles in teaching apply 
equally to both, though they may be taught by different 
methods. 

Knowledge is the result of the act of knowing. The 
mind puts forth the act of knowing, and knowledge 
is the result or product. Hence the mind Result of 
acquires knowledge by its ozvn activity, not Knowing. 
by the activity of another mind. Knowledge is pos- 
sessed by no mind that does not put forth the act of 
knowing. In the absence of this knowing activity, the 
mind cannot acquire knowledge. 

It follows from these facts that knowledge cannot be 
transferred from one mind to another. Water can be 
poured from one vessel into another, but Knowledge 
there is no " pouring-in " process in teaching ^^"°* 
knowledge. Knowledge can no more be able, 
transferred than feelings or purposes. All that is 
possible in teaching knowledge is to occasion the proper 
act of knowing. Even information cannot be trans- 
ferred, and its so-called communication by language is 
possible only when the words used occasion the right 
mental activity. No error in teaching has occasioned 
more bad work than the assumption that knowledge 

ART OF TEACHING — 3 



34 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

can be transferred from one mind to another, that mere 
telling is teaching. This has been the source of word 
cramming. 

The psychical fact that underlies the teaching of 

knowledge is that the mind knows only by its own 

activity, and from this fact it follows that 

Occasioning -^ ' 

Knowing knowledge can be taught only by occasioning 
Activity, the proper knowing activity. There are two 
factors in teaching, the teacher and the pupil, and the 
essential factor is the pupil. It is what the pupil does, 
not what the teacher says, that determines the success 
of the teaching process. This explains the contrast 
often presented by teachers. One teacher presents 
lessons well so far as mere method goes, and yet fails 
as an instructor. Another teacher, who presents her 
lessons mechanically no- better, succeeds admirably. 
The contrast is explained by the fact that the first 
teacher has a dormant class. She does her work, but 
the pupils do not do theirs, and hence her failure. The 
second teacher has the gift of awakening the interest of 
her pupils, of putting them mentally on tiptoe for the 
lesson, an art that has no recipe. All that she says 
or does occasions responsive activity in her pupils, and 
so she succeeds. These illustrations show why interest 
and resulting attention are essential conditions of all 
successful teaching, but they are only conditions. They 
cannot be made ends or exploited as principles of 
teaching. 

The foregoing facts give us the first fundamental 
principle or law of teaching, to wit : 

Principle One. Knowledge can be taught only by 
occasioning the proper activities of the learner*s mind. 



4 TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 



35 



This is the one guiding principle in teaching knowl- 
edge, a principle as certain in pedagogy as the law of 
gravity is in nature. 

It follows from this principle that the method of 
teaching knowledge is determined primarily by the 
nature of the knowledge taught. The way 

u- 1 ^u -J • 111 Methods of 

m which the mmd acquires knowledge must teaching 
be observed in teaching it. Hence there can ^""^•^'ige- 
be no universal or even general method of teaching. 
There must be as many different methods as there are 
different kinds of knowledge to be taught. Perceptive 
knowledge can be taught only by observation ; induc- 
tive knowledge by induction, etc. 

It is specially to be noted that no primary idea can 
be taught by means of a word. A word may occasion 
the recall or reproduction of an idea that 

, , . Primary 

has been associated with it, but it cannot ideas taught 
occasion the activity that results in a new Objectively. 
idea, except it may be an idea of the word as such. 
A primary idea can be taught only by presenting to 
the mind an object that will occasion the appropriate 
activity. It follows that all primary ideas in every 
branch of kfiowledge imist be taught objectively^ that is, 
by presenting the appropriate objects to the learner's 
mind. The futile attempts to teach primary knowledge 
through words have been responsible ior much failure 
in elementary instruction. It was once widely assumed 
that knowledge, even scientific knowledge, can be put 
in the minds of young children by means of words, 
and it is too evident that this old-time error still sur- 
vives. Much of the so-called scientific instruction in 
physiology, and we may add geography, now forced upon 
young children, involves this radical error. Teachers 



36 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

are slow in learning that knowledge can be taught 
by language only when the words represent known 
ideas. ^ 

It is to be specially noted in this connection that the 
manner or method of teaching knowledge is determined, 
Axiom of i^ot only by the nature of the knowledge 
Teaching, taught, but also by the psychical condition 
of the pupil. It is an axiom of teaching that instruction 
both in matter and method must be adapted to the capa- 
bility of the learner. The adaptation of instruction to 
capability is an essential principle in all successful in- 
struction. Not only does the mental power of pupils of 
the same age differ, but the capability of the same pupil 
varies from year to year. Nor is this variation, as pre- 
viously shown (p. 17), due simply to changes in the 
energy and activity of the mind as a whole. There is 
a marked change in the relative energy and activity of 
the several mental powers at different ages — if pre- 
ferred, a marked change in the mind's power to put 
forth its several activities at different ages.^ As pupils 
advance in the course of study they pass through suc- 
cessive phases of mental development and activity, and, 
as a consequence, both the matter and method of in- 
struction must correspondingly change from year to 

iJn a letter to Governor Marcy of New York, dated December 13, 1833, 
Hon. James Wadsworth says : 

" If I am correct in my views, it is quite practicable to pass into the 
minds of our youth scientific knowledge, scientific facts, and scientific 
reasons for thousands of physical phenomena of constant occurrence 
through life. ... I respectfully request you to call the attention of the 
legislature to the improvement of our common schools, and to a distinct 
expression of your opinion that scientific instruction may be introduced in 
'our common schools by means of lectures adapted to the capacity of chil- 
dren — the lectures to be read by the schoolmaster .^'' [Italics ours.] 

2 White's " Elements of Pedagogy," p. 91. 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 37 

year. Pupils in the higher grades can easily master 
subjects that cannot be successfully taught to primary 
pupils. 

There are phases of knowledge in every branch that 
correspond to the phases of knowing. In its perceptive 
phase of activity the mind readily acquires Natural 
perceptive knowledge, in its representative <^^^^r. 
phase, representative knowledge, and in its scientific 
phase, scientific knowledge. Hence, tJici-e is a natural 
order in ivhicJi the poivers of the mind should be exer- 
cised and the corresponding kinds of knowledge tanght} 
The natural movement of the mind in the earlier pro- 
cesses of knowing is from sense perception through 
representative activity to reason, that is, from sense 
activity to reason throngJi the activity of the intermediate 
pozvers. 

A true course of instruction for elementary schools 
cuts off a section of presentive, representative, and 
thought knowledge each year, but these suc- 

° & .7 » True Course 

cessive annual sections do not contain the of instruc- 
same kinds of higher or thought knowledge. **°"' 
There is a natural development of thought power and a 
corresponding order in thought knowledge. Scientific 
knowledge cannot be taught to infants, but it must wait 
until the pupil reaches the scientific phase of develop- 
ment. Nearly every branch of study has its phases of 
knowledge which correspond to the successive phases 
in the pupil's psychical growth. Geography, for exam- 
ple, has a primary-school phase (its primary ideas and 
facts), a grammar-school phase, a high-school phase, 
and even a university phase. It is idle to attempt to 
teach the astronomical explanation of the change of 

1 White's " Elements of Pedagogy," p. 104. 



38 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

seasons to fourth year pupils. The subject belongs 
much higher in the course. Only the simple facts 
learned from observation and experience can be taught 
in primary grades. The young child is not a scientist 
or a philosopher, nor can he early master the causal 
reasons of physical phenomena. 

A true course of study has been compared to a spiral 
surrounding the several columns of human knowledge, 

Spiral and cutting off a section of each at every 

Theory. rouud of its asccut. This assumes that the 
several branches of knowledge rise from their simple 
elements by a natural sequence of subjects to their 
higher truths and applications, and that this sequence 
agrees with the expanding powers of the mind. It fol- 
lows that in teaching any branch of knowledge the sev- 
eral subjects or topics should be successively reached 
in their true psychical order, that is, as the pupils 
gain the mental power to master them. 

It is thus seen that the true spiral theory of instruc- 
tion is psycJiical, not mechanical. It does not bring all 
Abuse of subjects dowu to the lowest, and then keep 

Spiral pupils nibbling at them from year to year. 

nncip e. ^j^j^ .^ ^ misconceptiou and abuse of the 
spiral principle. There are, for example, subjects in 
arithmetic that should not be taught below the gram- 
mar grades. The several subjects included in algebra 
have Hkewise a proper sequence that should be observed 
in teaching the science. It is not meant that the higher 
subjects in a branch may not contain elements that can 
be taught earlier than the complete subjects. Nothing, 
however, is gained by the attempt to teach knowledge 
that is above the capability or needs of the learner. A 
merry-go-round is not a spiral. 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 39 

2. Mental Power. 

Every normal act of the mind leaves as an enduring 
result an increased power to act and a tendency to act 
again in like manner. Power and tendency are the re- 
sultants of all mental action. The power and tendency 
of the mind to observe are increased by observing ; to 
imagine by imagining; to judge by judging; to reason 
by reasoning, etc.^ 

It follows from these facts that the power of the mind 
to put forth any kind of activity is developed by occa- 
sioning sucJl activity. Perceptive power is p ^ 
developed by occasioning perceptive activity ; developed by 
thought power by occasioning thought activ- -^^^'^'^y- 
ity ; analytic power by analysis ; synthetic power by 
synthesis, etc. Not only is it true that each of the 
mental powers is developed by occasioning its appro- 
priate activity, but it can be developed in no other 
way. Activity is the only means of developing mental 
power. 

From the foregoing psychical facts is derived the 
second fundamental principle of teaching, to wit : 

Principle Two. The several mental powers can be 
developed only by occasioning their appropriate activity. 

Here again it is seen that the teacher is but the occa- 
sioner of right activity in the learner. The essential 
factor in training mental power is the pupil's p^ .j,^ 
activity. The teacher can only occasion and Activity 
direct such activity. The human soul is not ^"'^"*^^'- 
a machine that can be put in motion by turning a crank. 
Its activity is the result of a self-exerted energy. The 

1 White's " Elements of Pedagogy," p. 119, 



40 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

function of teaching is to stimulate this energy. The 
school joins teaching and learning as correlates, the one 
the occasioner, and the other the efficient cause of knowl- 
edge and power. 

The fundamental principle of training stated above 
applies to the development of all psychical power. The 
Principle powcr of the soul in feeling, in willing, in all 
Universal, nioral and spiritual activity, is developed only 
by activity in these directions. Right feelings are culti- 
vated, the conscience quickened, and the moral judg- 
ment trained each by right activity.^ This principle is 
the fundamental law of training the powers of the soul 
in all directions and under all normal conditions. It is 
a principle of universal application in teaching. 

Attempts have been made to limit the application of 
this principle. It is claimed that the power of the mind 
Attempts to dcvclopcd by a given activity is not avail- 
Limit. ^Y<^ j^ other activities ; that there are as 
many kinds of mental discipline as there are different 
" spheres " of mental action, and that the mental power 
developed in a given sphere is available only in that 
sphere. This claim is set up in opposition to the so- 
called ''dogma of formal discipHne," a dogma which, 
in the extreme form in which it is often stated, is largely 
a product of the imagination. It certainly has a small 
acceptance as a theory of mental discipHne. 

Moreover, the question thus raised belongs to the 

course of study rather than to the art of teaching. So 

Truth it must suffice here to say that the truth does 

stated. not lie in either of these extreme views. On 

the contrary, all experience shows that while mental power 

developed by a special activity may not be available in 

1 White's " School Management," p. 224. 



A TRIXITY OF PRINCIPLES. 4 1 

a totally different activity, it is available, though not, it 
may be, in equal degree, hi all related activities, that 
is, in all spheres of activity that involve, though not 
exclusively, the action of the same mental powers. The 
analytic power developed by the solution of arithmeti- 
cal problems is helpful in the analysis of sentences in 
grammar ; the study of Latin shows itself in the easier 
mastery of natural science ; the observation of plant life 
helps in the observation of animal life, etc. 

It is not claimed, let it be noted, that mental power 
gained in one sphere of activity is eqiially available in 
all related activities. The power of observa- Mental 
tion acquired in the study of plants is not Habits, 
equally available in the observation of animal Hfe, much 
less of chemical phenomena. The powers of the mind 
are most facile in the directions in which they have 
been exercised, especially in which habits of action have 
been formed. Indeed, long and absorbing observation 
of one kind of phenomena may result in a mental habit 
which may be a hindrance in the observation of other 
phenomena. But these facts do not show that the 
mental power developed by a given activity is limited 
to that special activity and is not available in other 
activities. Nor do they show that power developed by 
a given activity may not energize the mind as a whole, 
or, if preferred, may not energize the whole mental Hfe. 

The dogma of formal discipline is one extreme, and 
the doctrine that mental power is available only in the 
special activity that has developed it is another . 

extreme. The truth lies in neither of these neither 
extremes. All experience shows that mental ^^*''«'"e- 
power developed in any sphere of activity is available, 
in greater or less degree, in all related activities. 



42 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

There is, however, nothing in this principle that justi- 
fies the claim that, so far as mental training is con- 
comparative ccmcd, it makcs no difference what subjects 

sch"o^or ^^^ taught in school, provided they are well 

studies. taught — a proviso which ignores the fact 
that some subjects cannot be well taught if certain other 
subjects have not been taught; that every course of 
instruction contains certain fundamental studies that 
must be mastered as a means of pursuing other studies. 
But the claim itself is based on an error. The several 
studies in a school course do not afford an equally valua- 
ble mental training, though all may afford training, and 
a helpful training. The elementary studies, for example, 
do not equally train the power of observation, even when 
taught by an '* observational method," nor is an observa- 
tional method equally applicable to all elementary stud- 
ies. No one study affords equally effective training in all 
directions, and certainly all studies do not give equally 
valuable training in any one direction. There is no 
ground for the claim that all studies have equal edu- 
cational value, either as discipline or as knowledge. 
A course of school training should clearly include at 
least the elements of knowledge in all the fundamental 
branches. This is necessary for the acquisition of higher 
knowledge, as well as for the harmonious development 
of the mental powers. All children who are, not men- 
tally defective are capable of receiving this necessary 
training. 

But let us come back from our long digression to 
the guiding principles of teaching under consideration. 
The question may be raised whether knowledge or the 
power to know should be made the leading aim in teach- 
ing knowledge. It is not easy to see how these two 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 



43 



results can be put in sharp contrast, since the power 
to know can be trained only by actual knowing, with 
both knowledge and increased power to know Knowledge 
as results. There can be no effective train- o'-Power 
ing of the power to know that does not give l^m"^ 
clear and definite knowledge. Teachers whose pupils 
have vague and indefinite knowledge of the sub- 
jects taught have poor reason for pride in the training 
quality of their teaching. Such teachers are not suc- 
cessfully training their pupils' power to acquire knowl- 
edge, whatever may be true of their merits in other 
directions. 

But this question has great practical significance when 
it relates to methods of teaching knowledge. Knowledge 
may be so taught and so acquired as to afford very little 
training of the power to know. This is specially true 
when information is taught by memoriter methods. It 
is possible for a pupil to know a statement and not knozv 
the fact stated. Not only is this possible, but is not an 
uncommon result when the attempt is made to teach 
knowledge to young pupils by words. 

Moreover, there are still more practical reasons for 
the making of the training of power the leading aim in 
teaching knowledge. Mental power is not 
only more abiding than knowledge, but is of Powe^Lead- 
greater practical utility. While knowledge is *"^ ^''"• 
a necessary guide in human effort, mental power gives 
acumen, grasp, strength, inspiration, and these are the 
winners of success in all the activities and conflicts of 
Hfe. Even so-called practical knowledge, to be of real 
utility for guidance, must be thought out and applied by 
an intelligent mind. The superficial empiricist is liable 
to blunder in every new appHcation of his knowledge. 



44 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

I have elsewhere stated ^ that if my mind were a tablet 
and with a sponge I should erase every fact learned in 

Personal school and College, and not applied at the 
Experience, ^imc in some art, I should not be intellectu- 
ally very poor, but were I to lose the mental power 
gained in the mastery of these facts, so many of which 
were long since happily forgotten, I should be poor 
indeed. The abiding practical result of my school and 
college training, such as it was, is soul poiver. This is 
believed to be the experience of all who have lived long 
enough to test fully the practical value of their school 
training. 

It is thus seen that in education the act of acquir- 
ing knowledge is more important than the knowledge 

,, . , acquired. This vital truth is embodied in 

Maxim of ^ 

Elementary the followiug maxim of elementary instruc- 

Intuxtion. ^.^^ . 

Whatever knozvledge is taught a^ child should be so 
taugJit that the act of acquiring it shall be of greater 
wortli than the knozvledge acquired. 

In the face of the wide experience that attests this 
principle, there are those who ask of every school study, 
Narrow utii- *' Of what practical use will its facts be in the 
itarianism. shop or in the storc, on the farm or in the 
factory, in managing a railway or a bank t " They 
assert that the supreme and only test of the value of a 
school study is the practical utility of its facts for the 
purposes of guidance in life's business. If a fact 
cannot be used in the work of life, it is declared to 
be ** a useless fact and its acquisition a positive waste 
of time and effort." This narrow utilitarianism is 
crowding our courses of study with facts, and is mak- 

1 White's " Elements of Pedagogy," p. 123. 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 45 

ing school instruction too largely a gradgrind process of 
cramming. 

No intelligent person questions the value of practical 
knowledge or the importance of properly including such 
knowledge in school courses (p. 28 ), and cer- practical 
tainly few modern educators hold that the vaiue of 
practical worth of knowledge in life lessens ^"o^'^'^s^- 
its value as a means of mental discipline. The one 
result to be secured in teaching knowledge, zukatever 
may be its nature, is the effective training of the power 
to acquire and express it. To this end it must be taught 
and acquired by methods that put the developing of 
power before knowledge. 

3. Skill. 

As before seen, every act of the mind leaves as abid- 
ing results an increased power to act and a tendency to 
act again in like manner. This resulting psychicai 
power and tendency are increased by each F^^^ts. 
repetition of an act. ** All function," says Hoffding, 
"is made easier by repetition and practice." Where 
the tendency to repeat an act becomes so strong that 
the act "repeats itself" habit is formed, and action is 
involuntary or automatic. The increase of power and 
tendency by repetition is not necessarily equal, and it 
usually grows less and less as the Hmit of automatic 
action is approached. It is unnecessary to attempt here 
an explanation of these psychical facts. It is sufficient 
for our present purpose to know that both power and 
tendency in action are increased by repetition and 
practice. 

This principle of repetition applies to a series of acts 
as well as to a single act. At first each act in a series 



46 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

requires attention, but at last the successive acts seem 
to flow automatically from the idea of the end. Thus a 
Series of pcrsou may engage in conversation when sew- 
Acts. ing or even when playing a familiar piece of 
music. When we do anything from habit, the succes- 
sive acts receive little attention, and most of these acts 
may be wholly automatic. 

But automatic action is not skill in the sense in which 
the word is herein used. Skill is readiness and facility 
Automatic ^^^ attaining special ends. Aimless action. 

Action. howsoever facile, is not skillful. Skill in 
doing is a higher phase of activity than mere motor 
action. 

The first phase in the gaining of power and facility 

in action is the imitation of the action of another. At 

first this imitative movement is instinctive, as 

Imitation. 

when a baby smiles m response to the smile 
of its mother, a sort of responsive coaction. The 
action of another, seen or heard, is a stimulus to motor 
impulse, and, by means of the activity thus occasioned, 
the child comes into the use of its active organs. 

But instinctive and involuntary imitation soon passes 
into the voluntary reproduction of the action of another. 
Voluntary The child tvles to repeat what it sees and 
Imitation, hcars, the effort becoming increasingly con- 
scious and pleasurable. By means of this conscious 
effort to imitate others, the child's activities are multi- 
pUed and varied, and its motor power and facility 
increased. 

From the imitation of what is seen or heard acting im- 

Memory mediately as a motor stimulus, the child passes 

Imitation. ^^ ^j^^ couscious reproduction of past actions, 

the memory of such actions serving as a motor idea and 



A TRINITY OF PR I NCI PIES. 47 

occasioning a motor impulse. The tendency to respond 
to such a stimulus is increased by repetition, and thus 
a past action may be repeated at the sHghtest motor 
impulse ; and at last such repetition may become 
automatic. 

The step is easy from the reproduction of past actions 
to the imitation or realization of those which are imag- 
ined, as in play. Play affords the child in- imagination 
creasing pleasure in action, since he is becom- *" Action, 
ing conscious of the power to originate as well as to 
imitate ; that is, he is coming into conscious self -activity. 
This seems to be the real significance of play. 

These several phases of imitation characterize the 
nursery and the kindergarten. The infant learns to 
walk, to talk, to sing, to play, to repeat nurs- imitation in 
ery rhymes, etc., by imitative action ; and infancy, 
all this activity plays an important part in the child's 
training and growth. *' Man," said Aristotle, 'Ms the 
most imitative of animals, and makes his first steps in 
learning by the aid of imitation." 

The child at last rises from these lower phases of 
imitative action — the mechanical imitation of action 
seen or imagined — to the effort to realize in Realization 
action a definite end, an idea of such end being of i^eais. 
the ideal that inspires and guides action. Thus, in sing- 
ing the pupil tries to produce tones which his mind 
hears (tones in the mind), and in drawing he tries to 
make ideal forms or forms in the mind. This idea of 
the end, the ideal, puts the mind and the will into the 
voice and the fingers, and skill is the result. This is the 
art phase of imitation, the skillful realizing of ideals. 

It is thus seen that in learning any art, clear and 
inspiring ideals must guide practice; the clearer and 



48 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

more inspiring the ideals, the greater the resulting 
skill. This is true not only in such manual arts as the 

Ideals in Patching of a quoit, the shooting of an arrow, 
learning the the drawing of a figure, etc., but also in the 
^''*^' arts of reading, music, painting, sculpture, 
etc. In all art learning, ideals inspire effort and guide 
in movement and process ; and, since the imagination 
is dependent upon observation and experience for the 
materials with which it forms its ideals, the wider the 
learner's observation of the work of skillful artists, and 
the greater his own experience and skill, the better will 
be his guiding ideals, and the more fruitful his practice. 

We thus reach the third fundamental principle of 
teaching, to wit : 

Principle Three. Skill in any school art is trained by 
practice under the inspiration and guidance of clear ideals. 

It follows from this principle that the essential step 

in teaching any school art is to lead the pupil to form 

correct ideals of wJiat is to be done or -tro- 

Forming -^ ^ 

Correct duccd, and to this end he should be presented 
Ideals. ^-^j^ ^j^^ l^gg^ examples and models. In the 

lower primary grades, children must take their first 
steps in reading, language, singing, drawing, writing, 
etc., by imitation; but, as pupils pass up in the grades, 
they attain the power to act from ideals, and here true 
art training begins. 

Skill in no art is acquired by simple practice. The 

Comenian maxim, *' We learn to do by doing," is only 

a half-truth, even when applied to manual 

Comenian *■ ^ 

Maxima skill. Wc leam to do by doing binder the 
Half-truth, inspiration and guidance of tnic ideals. Sim- 
ple practice without such guidance never made an artist 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 49 

or an artisan. Blind practice is always and everywhere 
a plodder. The poorest teaching, for example, is often 
done by teachers who have grown gray in the school- 
room. What is needed to transmute experience in 
teaching into power and skill is the inspiration of true 
ideals and the guidance of correct principles. The 
most skillful teaching the writer has seen in years has 
been by teachers with gray hairs. 

The arts of reading, writing, language, music, etc., 
are never properly taught by mere practice. Even the 
mastery of the two form arts, writing and nq Art 
drawing, requires something more than the learned by 
mechanical imitation of model copies for a 
given number of minutes each day. The teacher's 
function is to lead the pupils to form clear and correct 
ideals, to teach them the best processes for attaining 
these ends, and then to secure necessary practice under 
the most inspiring guidance. Automatic practice may 
increase the mechanical faciUty with which pupils repeat 
known processes, but such practice never corrects errors 
or suggests improved methods. It begets the habit 
of non-attention to the conditions of right action, and 
creates mental habits which are subversive of skill. 
The mastery of any art involves the acquisition of skill 
in realizing ideals. 

A weakness in much art instruction is a failure to give 
pupils a clear knoivlcdge of the processes by ivJiich their 
ideals ca7i be realized. It is true that this Knowledge 
knowledge may be slowly gained by tentative °f Processes, 
practice, but, since it is not an end but a means of prac- 
tice, the earlier it is acquired, the sooner will the pupil 
master art processes. It is true that this guiding knowl- 
edge cannot be acquired much in advance of practice. 

ART OF TEACHING — 4 



50 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Practice not only applies, but indirectly interprets and 
makes clearer the knowledge that guides it. While the 
ideal guides the process as a means to the end, a knowl- 
edge of the process as such greatly facilitates the reach- 
ing of the end. The clearer the pupil's knowledge of both 
the end and the process, the more skillful will be his 
action. 

This fact exposes the fallacy that underlies the attempt 

to teach knowledge by the act of embodying it in material 

AA^^ 1 „„ forms. The child must have an idea of a 

Modeling 

and cube or a sphere before he can make these 
Molding. fQi-ms, except by pattern. The same is true 
of the molding of the contours and reliefs of countries 
in sand. A knowledge of contour and relief must pre- 
cede and guide the molding, if not done by pattern. It 
may be added that the production of forms by pattern 
has small educative value. Artisans who devote their 
time to the making of relief globes and maps by pattern 
acquire thus little real knowledge of geography. 

The final step in art training is practice guided by 

principle or rule. The processes of every art are based 

on principles, and these, when formulated for 

Rules. .\ 

guidance, are its rules. But these formal 
rules are of little, if any, value to the young learner, 
and hence they should not be introduced early. The 
old-time attempt to teach the art of language by means 
of the rules of technical grammar is an illustration of 
this error. This attempt was based on the false notion 
that skill in speech and writing is acquired through a 
knowledge of the rules of syntax, an error still too 
evident in American schools, especially in elementary 
schools whose pupils are too young to apprehend, much 
less to apply, formal rules in any art. In the later and 



A TRINITY OF PRINCIPLES. 5 1 

higher practice of an art, a knowledge of its guiding 
principles is of great value, and these • may finally take 
the place of the living teacher. The principles and 
rules of an art are most helpful in practice when they 
are so familiar to the artist as to be observed without 
being consciously in mind. It is only when ideals and 
rules become unconscious guides that true art appears. 



CHAPTER IV. 
A TRINITY OF PROCESSES. 

We have now considered the three fundamental ends 
to be attained in teaching, and the three guiding princi- 
ples or laws to be observed in their attainment, and are 
thus prepared to consider the teaching processes that 
embody these principles. 

While there is a great variety of activities involved in 
teaching, these are all included in three fundamental 

Three processcs, cach capable of clear description 
Teaching and Separate study. These teaching pro- 
cesses are known as instruction, drilling, and 
testing. Every teaching exercise is one of these pro- 
cesses, or a combination of two or all of them. 

The process called instruction may be defined as the 

occasioning of those mental activities in the pupil that 

result in knozvledge and an increased power to 

Instruction. ^ -^ 

know. Instruction is the occasion, the pupil's 
mental activity is the cause, and knowledge and know- 
ing power are the results. It is thus seen that instruc- 
tion has for its end not only the teaching of knowledge, 
but the training of the power to acquire knowledge. 
In some instruction exercises knowledge is the chief 
conscious end, while in other exercises training is 
prominent ; but in all cases the teaching of knowledge 
characterizes the process of instruction. Moreover, 
instruction may be the only process in a teaching exer- 

52 



A TRINITY OF PROCESSES. 53 

cise, or it may be only preparatory to drill or practice, 
as in teaching the school arts, or it may alternate with 
either of the other processes. It will be increasingly 
clear that instruction is a fundamental and most impor- 
tant teaching process. 

The drill as a teaching process has for its chief end 
t/ie training of power and skill, especially skill in the 
several school arts. The drill is also used 

The Drill. 

to make clearer and hence more permanent 
the results of instruction and study. It is not enough 
that pupils be once led to know facts or even to reach 
a truth by inductive steps under a teacher's guidance. 
They must also acquire the power to reach it again 
with less guidance and greater certainty. These results 
are secured by repetition or practice. In elementary 
schools the drill absorbs full three fifths of teaching time 
and effort; and hence a knowledge of its function, 
methods, and limitations is of very great importance. 

The test has for its end the disclosing of t/ie results 
of instruction, drill, and study, the disclosing of the 
pupil's attainments. The test is the eye of 
teaching; the guide and inspirer of teacher 
and pupil. It not only throws needed light upon the 
teacher's work, but also awakens interest, secures atten- 
tion, and adds energy and persistence to the pupil's 
efforts. The test accompanies and supports both in- 
struction and drill. 

The propriety of considering the test a teaching 
process has been questioned, but the objection has its 
source in the misconception that teaching and testing a 
instruction are synonymous terms. It is true Teaching 
that teaching includes instruction as one of its 
processes, but all teaching is not instruction. Teaching 



54 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

is the occasioning of those activities in the learner that 
result in knowledge, power, and skill (p. 9), and hence 
it clearly includes testing. The test adds efficiency to 
both instruction and drilling, and so shares the results 
of each process. There is no successful instruction 
without a knowledge of the results attained, and the 
more clearly these results are known by the teacher, 
the more intelligent will be his efforts and the higher 
his skill and success. Instruction is not firing knowl- 
edge at pupils in the dark. The teacher must know 
what his pupils know to determine what they can best 
learn next. 

It is not meant that the teaching processes described 
above are usually separate in teaching. On the con- 
Biendin of ^^^^Y' ^^^Y oftcu succccd cach other in the 
Teaching Same cxercisc, and as often, it may be, blend 
and support each other. But in most teach- 
ing exercises one of these processes is the leading and 
central process, the others being subordinate, often inci- 
dental. It is important for the teacher to know in 
advance whether instruction or drilling or testing is to 
be the leading purpose of an exercise. The skillful 
teacher knows what he is doing. His efforts are guided 
by a clear and definite aim. 

Teaching Exercises. 

The three teaching processes give, when used sepa- 
rately, three distinct teaching exercises, to wit : mstriic- 
tion exercises, drill exercises, and test exercises. But 
in practice, as already noted, these teaching processes 
are more or less united, this being specially true of 
instruction and drilling, as in teaching the school arts 



A TRINITY OF PROCESSES. 55 

(p. 50). Also in teaching knowledge repetition may 
be necessary to deepen impression or to add clearness 
to the pupil's apprehension of what is taught. Indeed, 
the union of instruction and drilling in teaching is so 
common that neither term is ever technically used to 
designate the exercise. On the contrary, such ^^^ ^^^^^^^ 
an exercise is called a Lesson, the term lesson 
being used indiscriminately to denote an instruction 
exercise or a drill exercise or an exercise combining 
instruction and drilling. Thus, we speak of a lesson 
in history, a lesson in hygiene, a lesson in reading, a 
lesson in drawing, etc.^ 

The testing process is, as will be more fully shown 
later (p. 90), a necessary element in every instruction 
or drill exercise, but its place is subordinate The 
and incidental. When testing is the chief pur- Recitation, 
pose of an exercise, it is a test exercise, and is properly 
called a Recitation. The term recitation is composed 
of the Latin re, again, and citare, to tell or say ; and the 
use of the term to denote a test exercise doubtless had 
its origin in the old practice of requiring pupils to repeat 
or recite the words of the book as evidence of their 
knowledge. Whatever may be true as to its original 
use, there is no better term to designate this vital exer- 
cise in school training. 

It is thus seen that in practice teaching exercises 
divide into two distinct classes, designated by the terms 
lessojis and recitations, the former including instruction 
and driUing (testing being incidental), and the latter test- 

1 The term lesson is also applied to the subject or object taught or 
assigned for study ; also to what may be assigned to be done. But this 
use of the term occasions no difficulty, since the context clearly indicates 
the sense in which the word is used. 



56 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

ing, more commonly the oral test. There is great prac- 
tical advantage in using the terms lesson and recitation 
with this sharp distinction in meaning. The 

Proper Use ^ . ° 

of These use of tcrms in a vague and indefinite sense is 

Terms. ^^ source of scrious confusion in pedagogy. 

All activities and processes that differ essentially ought 

to be designated by different terms, each used uniformly 

with a definite meaning. 

The term lesson is now generally used in the sense 
here indicated. It is common to apply the term to in- 
struction exercises, and it is even more common to apply 
it to exercises which include both instruction and drill, 
as in the school arts. But the term recitation is unhap- 
pily used in a more indefinite sense, it being often used, 
especially by students of German methods, to denote 
Too wide any teaching exercise. Nothing is gained in 
thl^Te°r m thcory or in practice by the use of the term 
Recitation, rccitatiou in this blanket sense. We have 
teaching exercises which are definitely known as lessotis^ 
and there are other teaching exercises which are not les- 
sons. What is greatly needed, both for clearness and 
definiteness, is a term to designate these non-lesson exer- 
cises. The needed term is recitation, a word that both 
historically and properly designates the vital test exercise. 
It is very important that the terms lesson and recita- 
tion be used in pedagogy in the definite senses here 

indicated. Such use will emphasize the dis- 
use of ^ 

Terms in tluctiou bctwecn thcsc two classes of exer- 
Pedagogy. ^^jggg^ 2.Yi^y at the Same time, will widen the 
recognition of the test exercise as a most vital element 
in school training. It is only a few years since nearly all 
the teaching exercises in American schools, above the 
lowest primary, were recitations, the lesson having a 



A TRINITY OF PROCESSES. 57 

small place, especially the oral lesson for instruction. 
Now in many schools the class exercises are nearly all 
lessons, the recitation receiving little attention. No 
change in teaching in the last twenty-five years has 
been more marked than this. The recitation with its 
eye-to-eye search has been widely superseded by the 
written test; and teaching has become the giving of 
lessons, too largely talking. 

This marked change in teaching has been attended 
with both gains and losses, and certainly the losses are 
too serious to be ignored (p. 1 18). Pupils are change in 
coming to the high school with little power Teaching, 
and less habit of study, and their dependence upon the 
teacher "to make all things clear" is increasing. In 
too many instances teaching has become a process of 
preparing pupils for written examinations. What is 
needed is not less fruitful instruction, but more of the 
vitalizing oral search. To secure this, it is important 
that the lesson and the recitation be conjoined as comple- 
mentary meajis of school training ; and, to this end, they 
must be properly correlated, a word that clearly ex- 
presses the kind of union needed. The manner in which 
this can be done effectively will be made clear in subse- 
quent pages. 

It is to be noted here that the terms lesson and reci- 
tation are applied in this treatise only to teacJiing exer- 
cises ; that is, exercises whose guiding ends are knowledge, 
power, and skill (p. 26). There may be exercises in 
schools, especially in primary schools, whose aim may 
be physical activity, reHef, recreation, even amusement. 
There is an evident impropriety in calling such exercises 
lessons, and much greater impropriety in calling them 
recitations. They are not teaching exercises. 



CHAPTER V. 
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 

It has been assumed as an axiom of teaching that 
instruction must be adapted to the capability of the 
The Infant leamcr (p. 36). This adaptation relates to the 
and Adult, knowledge taught and also to the method of 
teaching it. Knowledge which can be readily taught 
an adult may be beyond the capability of the infant. 
The infant is in the perceptive phase of mental devel- 
opment. His dominant mental activity is the acquisition 
of primary knowledge, and his generalizations are chiefly 
acts of judgment, and are reached by short and easy 
steps. The child has, moreover, a comparatively small 
stock of ideas and facts for use as materials for thought. 
The adult, on the contrary, is in the reflective or scien- 
tific phase of mental activity. He has acquired a large 
stock of both primary and general knowledge, and he 
has also gained considerable power and facility in the 
higher thought processes. It is possible not only to 
teach the adult knowledge that is beyond the ability of 
the infant, but also to teach him in a different way. 

Between these two periods of mental development 
and acquisition, there are transitional phases in the ca- 
Transitionai pability of pupils, and corresponding changes 

Phases. [^ ^\^Q kinds of knowledge that can be success- 
fully taught. At every step in the school course there 
must be the intelligent adaptation of instruction in matter 

58 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 59 

and method to the changing abihty of pupils. This 
makes instruction an art, and not a mechanical routine. 

As already stated (p. 35), the manner in which the 
mind acquires knowledge necessarily determines the 
method of teaching it, and this is true at ^^^^ 
every stage of the mind's development. It determines 
follows that there must be as many methods 
of instruction as there are different kinds of knowledge 
to be taught. Perceptive knowledge is required by per- 
ception, representative knowledge through memory and 
imagination, and thought knowledge by thinking, includ- 
ing generalization, judging, and reasoning. Since these 
different kinds of knowledge are acquired in different 
ways, they cannot be taught in one way or by the same 
method. 

These psychical facts afford an intelligent basis for a 
helpful classification of methods of instruction, the term 
method being herein used in the sense of an classes of 
orderly and rational procedure to attain defi- Methods, 
nite results or ends. An elementary course of instruc- 
tion contains (i) primary ideas and facts, acquired largely 
by observation; (2) higher knowledge, acquired by 
thought; and (3) recorded or spoken knowledge, ac- 
quired from its expression in language. These three 
kinds of knowledge acquired in different ways give 
three distinct methods of instruction. These methods are 
known as the Objective method, the Indirect or Socratic 
method, and the Direct or Telling method ; and each 
may be studied in a thorough and practical manner. 

I. The Objective Method. 

All primary ideas are occasioned in the mind by the 
presence of appropriate objects, material or immaterial. 



60 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Thus, the primary ideas of form, color, sound, relations, 
etc., are produced by the reaction of the mind on appro- 
Primary priate objects. All material objects are pre- 
ideas. sented to the mind through some sense. The 
object, thus presented, occasions an excitation of the 
sense, producing a sensation (feeling), and through 
the sensation the mind, in an inexplicable way, per- 
ceives or knows the object. The result is an idea^ of 
the object. 

A primary idea cannot be taught except by present- 
ing to the mind the object that will occasion the neces- 
Primary Ideas ^^^Y ^ctivity. It Cannot be taught by means 
not taught of a word, for the reason that a word can- 
by words. , . ^, ,• •. f ^1 -1 
not occasion the proper activity of the mind. 

A word may occasion the reproduction of a known 
idea associated with it, but a word cannot occasion the 
activity that results in a new idea. It can only occasion 
an idea of itself as a sound or as a form. An idea of 
color, blue for example, can be taught only by present- 
ing the color to the mind through the eye, and an idea 
of sound can be taught only by presenting the occasion- 
ing object to the mind through the ear. It is for this 
reason that children who are born bHnd cannot be taught 
color,^ and those who are born deaf cannot be taught 
sound. 

1 The term idea is here used in the sense of percept or sense concept, 
as the result may be. 

2 It has been claimed that the blind learn to recognize color, but this is 
true only in the sense that they learn to recognize, to some extent, colored 
objects, as flannels of different colors. This is done by the sense of touch 
through which the mind perceives the associated tei7iperature, not color. 
Black flannel, for example, feels " black-warm "; red flannel, " red-warm "; 
white flannel, "white-cold"; blue flannel, "blue-cold," etc. What the 
mind perceives is the characteristic associated temperature. 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTIOM. 6 1 

This principle applies also to the teaching of facts 
that involve new primary ideas. Such facts can be 
taught only by first occasioning the new ideas. The 
fact that honey is sweet cannot be taught to a mind that 
has not the idea denoted by ** honey " and "sweet." 
The relations between ideas cannot be known if the 
ideas are not known. 

It follows from the principles reached above that 
all primary ideas and facts in every branch of knowl- 
edge must be taught by presenting the ap- p^j^^^^ 
propriate objects to the learner's mind. This ideas taught 
is known as the objective viethod of instruc- ^'^i^'^t^^^'y- 
tion. It is characterized by the study of things and 
phenomena as a means of knowing these objects. The 
objective method of instruction may be de- objective 
fined as the presenting of objects to the mind Method 
in stick manner as to occasion those activities 
that result in a knozvledge of the objects presented. It 
includes the exciting of curiosity, the awakening of 
interest, the directing of observation, the fixing of atten- 
tion, and all other means that assist the pupil in know- 
ing the object. The study of an object by observation 
includes not only perception, but comparison, judging, 
and other thought processes. 

The objective method is used increasingly in all 
grades of schools from the kindergarten to the univer- 
sity. It is used in teaching the first ideas ns 
of number, including simple number relations "^'^^^ u^^- 
and processes ; the primary facts of geography ; nature 
lessons ; the natural and physical sciences ; and all 
other branches that contain objective knowledge. In 
secondary schools and higher institutions it is often 
called the " Laboratory Method." It is also used as 



62 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

an initial step in the process of teaching thought knowl- 
edge, this being specially true in teaching the inductive 
sciences. No change in instruction in science has been 
happier than the early study of things in place of the 
study of what books say about things.^ 

The objective method is often used improperly by 
teachers who do not clearly understand its true function. 
Abuse of '^^^^ error occurs in teaching number when 
Objective objccts are used after they have served their 
purpose, and especially when the measure- 
ment of concrete magnitudes is made the continued 
means of teaching number relations and processes. 
It always appears when a method is made an end in 
teaching and is manipulated as such.^ This folly 
reaches its climax when an initial step in a teaching 
process is exploited as a method of teaching the subject. 
In no other work is the pedantry of the method grinder 
more obvious than in primary instruction. 

2. Indirect or Socratic Method. 
Thinking first appears in the forming of general 
concepts. When the mind has concepts of several 
General individual things in a class, it passes by a 
Concepts, proccss Called generalization to the general 
concept that represents the class. Thus from con- 
cepts of several individual oranges, it passes to the 
general concept expressed by the word oi^ange. 

1 When the writer was in college, he studied mineralogy from a text- 
book, without seeing the minerals, much less handling them. He after- 
ward found that his real knowledge of minerals was largely limited to 
those which he had seen and handled in his boyhood in the country. 

2 The author's attention was recently called to an official circular letter 
addressed to teachers in which were the questions : " Do you teach the 
Synthetic method ? " " Do you teach the Grube method ? " 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 63 

Another step in thinking is the comparing of known 
things and discerning their common quahties or hkeness. 
A common quahty may be thought of in 

vu fi, 1- . 1 Judging. 

connection with the objects compared, as 
'* yellow oranges," or it may be formally thought or 
affirmed, as, ** These oranges are yellow." These forms 
of thinking are called judging, the first, "yellow 
oranges," simple judging, and the second, "These 
oranges are yellow," formal judging, the resulting 
thought being called a judgment. 

A true judgment is a fact, and hence by thinking the 
mind passes from individual concepts to general con- 
cepts, and then to facts, — to particular facts, pacts of 
as, " This tree has roots " ; to general facts. Judgment, 
as, " Trees have roots." The general facts reached by 
judging are hmited to observation and experience. They 
are not universal facts. The judgment, "Trees have 
roots" is at first limited to known trees, though stated 
as if it were universal. 

But the mind is endowed with the power to pass from 
facts of judgment, whether particular or general, to luii- 
versal tritths. Thus, the mind may pass from universal 
"This elephant has a trunk" to "Elephants Truths by 
have trunks" (meaning known elephants), and ^"'^"^^^o"- 
from these to " All elephants have trunks." The first 
two of these facts are facts of judgment, and are hmited 
to experience ; the last is a universal fact, and is reached 
by a thinking process called reasonmg. The mind sees 
in the particular facts a cause, or reason, for the general 
inference. When this discerned reason is a necessity of 
nature or thought, the general truth is certain knowledge. 
This process of passing from particulars to generals is 
called inductive reasoning or, more simply, induction. 



64 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

The mind has also the power to discern in a general 
truth the vaUdity of all included facts, thus descending 
from a knowledge of universal truths to a 
cognition of particular facts. Thus, from the 
general, " All magnets attract iron," it infers that a mag- 
net will attract a particular iron nail. This mode of think- 
ing is called deductive reasoning or, simply, deduction. 

It is thus made evident that only a small part of 
human knowledge is acquired by simple observation. 
Mind's It is an innate impulse of the mind to pass 
Impulse, from the facts of observation and judgment 
to the universal truths of reason. It is true that in ob- 
servation thought plays an important part, so that the 
mind knows more than the senses disclose, but the eye of 
reason sees truth that lies far beyond the ken of sense. 
The senses see only the present phenomena of nature, 
but thought interprets observed phenomena and discerns 
nature's marvelous truths, forces, and laws. 

These psychical facts make it possible to teach 
thought knowledge by beginning with known facts, and 
Indirect leading the pupil by thinking to- know the 
Method. general and the universal. The pupil may 
be led to recall objects previously known, and then by 
thought to discern their Hkeness or difference, their 
relations as parts and wholes, as means and ends, as 
causes and effects, etc. In all this the teacher is only 
the occasioner of the pupil's thinking. He does not 
tell the pupil what he wishes him to know, but leads 
him to discover and know it for himself. 

This method of instruction is known as the indi- 
Training Tect OX training method. Its nature is clearly 
Maxim. indicated by the maxim. Never tell a pnpil 
ajiy thing which yon can lead him to know and tell you. 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 65 

It is also called the Socratic method, having been the 
characteristic method of Socrates, the great Greek 
teacher, and the most famous teacher of anti- socratic 
quity. He began with what his pupil knew, Method. 
and then skillfully led him to know even the profound 
truths of philosophy. 

The two methods of instruction now considered, the 
objective and the indirect, are embodied in several well- 
known maxims, reached from time to time Primary 
by the great reformers in education, and spe- Maxims, 
cially developed by Pestalozzi. Seven of these maxims 
may be stated as follows : 

1. Observation before reasonmg. 

2. The concrete before the abstract, or sense knowledge 
before thought knowledge. 

3. Facts before definitions or principles. 

4. Processes before rules. 

5. From the particular to the geiieral. 

6. From the simple to the cornplex. 

7. From the knozvn to the related unknown. 

These several maxims specially relate to elementary 
instruction, and they are not presented as universal prin- 
ciples of teaching. For example, the maxim, ^^^ 
" Processes before rules," is an important prin- universal 
ciple in teaching arithmetic, and also elemen- ""'^'^ ^^' 
tary algebra, both branches being best taught inductively,^ 

^If the maxim, "Processes before rules," be accepted as a sound prin- 
ciple in teaching arithmetic and algebra, then the rules should folloto, and 
not precede, the problems in text-books. One of the sanest statements 
in the report of the " Committee of Ten " is that in arithmetic all princi- 
ples and rules should be derived inductively, and that the rules should 
come "a/ the end, rather than at the beginning of the subject." The 
same is true in elementary algebra, since in most cases the rules can be 
derived from the processes. 

ART OF TEACHING — 5 



^ THE ART OF TEACHIiVG. 

but no wise teacher would accept it as a guiding prin- 
ciple in teaching higher mathematics. The maxim does 
not apply to such conventional rules in arithmetic as 
partial payments, annual interest, etc., — rules which are 
not reached inductively, but are a statement of what is 
law or custom. 

A like limitation applies to the maxim, " From the par- 
ticular to the general." In higher instruction the true 
Limitation ^^^^^ ""'^Y ^e from the general to the par- 
in Higher ticular, this being always true in deductive 
processes. It is, however, to be noted that 
this inverse order is possible only when the mind is 
in possession of those primary ideas and facts which 
are necessary to the apprehension of the abstract and 
general. ^ The maxim is a true principle in the teaching 
of the elements of all branches of knowledge, and also 
in teaching all inductive knowledge. 

These several maxims all involve the principle that 

there is a natural order in which the mind acquires 

Natural kuowlcdgc, an order that should be intelli- 

order. gently observed in elementary instruction 
and training. These maxims do not, however, imply 
that there should be long or even distinct intervals 
between observation and reasoning, or between any pri- 
mary or lower activity and the related higher. The 
mind by its own impulse and activity passes from obser- 
vation to thought, from the concrete to the abstract, 
from the known to the related unknown, etc., and it 
is not possible to separate these related activities in a 
course of study. Their true sequence is best observed 
by the living teacher in the details of instruction. 

It is ever to be kept in mind that the child observes 
as a child, thinks as a child, and reasons as a child in 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 6y 

his psychical condition. It is a serious mistake to at- 
tempt to force the young mind to do what it has not the 
ability to do successfully. Scientific knowl- chiid 
edge must wait until pupils have come to the Lin^itations. 
period of scientific thought. The primary pupil acquires 
even elementary knowledge slowly. There is, however, 
danger of falling into the opposite error, and keeping 
the pupil in a lower activity when he has the impulse 
and the ability for a higher activity. This error is com- 
mon in objective instruction, children being kept swing- 
ing on the gate of sense when they are prepared to make 
easy and fruitful excursions into the garden of thought. 

3. The Direct or Telling Method. 
The direct method of instruction is the occasioning 
of the proper activity of the learner's mind by means of 
language, oral or zvritten. It is the making communica- 
of knowledge common to teacher and pupil tion of 

. -,, -1 1 ' 1.' Knowledge. 

by its expression, called the communication 
of knowledge. The possibility of occasioning knowl- 
edge in another mind by means of words is a matter of 
common experience, and on the certainty of the knowl- 
edge thus acquired are based human action and conduct 
of the highest interest and importance. It is this func- 
tion of language that makes speech one of man's best 
endowments. 

While knowledge cannot be transferred from one 
mind to another, it may be communicated by means 
of language if the words used occasion the condition of 
proper knowing activity. A knowledge of communica- 
new facts may be occasioned by presenting 
to the mind known objects in new relations, and this 
may be done by means of language. 



68 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

It has been urged that though the mind may clearly ap- 
prehend a relation expressed by words, it does not know 
Objection that the relation thus expressed is real or true; 
Answered. \}^2X this is accepted on the testimony of an- 
other mind, and hence the result is mfoi'tnatio7i, not 
knowledge. This is doubtless true of much knowl- 
edge communicated by means of language. There is 
an element of faith in its acceptance as real, but this 
is not true of all communicated knowledge. On the 
contrary, many facts thus presented to the mind are 
known to be true as soon as they are apprehended. 
Their reality is known by an intuitive or thought pro- 
cess, and the result is knowledge. For example, the 
statement, "The source of a stream is higher-than its 
mouth," is seen to be true when clearly apprehended, 
provided the mind has the necessary knowledge of run- 
ning water. The same is true of the statement, " A piece 
of lead is heavier than an equal volume of iron." This 
fact may be clearly apprehended by the mind that has 
a clear concept or idea for each word in the statement, 
and its trueness is seen if the mind has the necessary 
knowledge of lead and iron. 

It is thus seen that the teaching of knowledge by 

means of language depends primarily on the use of 

words that express to the learner known con- 

Conditions ^ 

to be cepts and ideas. The sentence, " The parrot 
Observed. |g j^^ ^j^^ Cage," cxprcsscs a fact only to the 
mind that knows the meaning of " parrot," *' cage," and 
"in." The clearer the meaning of these words to the 
learner, the clearer will be his knowledge of the fact 
expressed. This shows that great care and skill are 
required to teach knowledge by means of language. 
Objective and concrete instruction must often prepare 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 69 

the way for the use of the direct method ; and this is 
specially true, as will be shown later, when knowledge is 
to be gained from the printed page. The fact has been 
noted (p. 43) that a pupil may know the statement of a 
truth without knowing the truth stated. 

But language is at best an imperfect means of express- 
ing human thought, and this is specially true in the 
instruction of the young. Most words are 

. ,. . . , . . . , , , Illustrations. 

matenahstic m their origm, and hence they 
best express the ideas and facts of nature and common 
life. But even here the teacher is often obliged to sup- 
plement language by illustration, as by diagrams, maps, 
sketches, pictures, models, stereopticon views, etc. In 
direct instruction the abstract is often made plain by the 
concrete, the general by the particular, the complex by 
the simple, the unknown by the related known, etc. 
The deeper truths of ethics and religion may by illustra- 
tion be brought within the comprehension of the learner. 
This is the significance of the parable, the fable, the 
allegory, etc. The little girl's notion of a parable as 
''an earthly story with a heavenly meaning" is not a 
bad definition. Indeed, so necessary is the use of illus- 
trations in direct teaching that it may be regarded as an 
important feature, if not a part of the method. In pre- 
senting the occasions of knowledge to the young learn- 
er's mind, language must often be thus supplemented, 
for words are at best imperfect signs of ideas. 

It may properly be noted here that the illustrative 
method of teaching is not the same as the objective. 
In objective instruction the fact taught re- niustrative 
lates to the object presented ; is, in a sense, ^"^t'""'="°" 
in the object. On the contrary, an illustra- objective, 
tion throws light upon a fact or truth that lies outside 



70 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

of itself. Our Lord used the illustrative method in 
teaching spiritual truth. He did not give object lessons. 
The truth taught was not in the parable, certainly with 
few exceptions, if any. 

It may here be added more explicitly that the direct 
illustrative method of instruction is in harmony with the 

Direct psychical fact that knowledge is possessed 
Illustrative only by the mind that puts forth the act of 
knowing (p. 33). It is also in full agreement 
with the principle that knowledge can be taught only 
by occasioning the appropriate activities of the learner's 
mind. The end sought by the method, as well as by the 
objective and indirect methods, is the occasioning of the 
p7'oper act of knowing. It is neither a talking nor a 
cramming process. It is a true method of instruction, 
though easily abused. 

It seems unnecessary to note that school courses of 
study contain much knowledge that can be taught only 
by the direct or telling method. This is true of biogra- 
phy, history, civics, hygiene, and other branches, and all 
names must be taught directly. The art of reading 
is primarily the getting of knowledge from printed or 
written language ; and book study is the pupil's per- 
sistent effort " to pick thought out of its verbal husk," 
as President Woolsey, of Yale, once put it. It is one 
of the chief functions of the school to train the pupil's 
power to acquire knowledge from books, to master the 
printed page. 

The three fundamental methods of instruction, now 

considered, are sometimes united in the same exercise. 

Union of In a simple lesson on an object, pupils may 

Methods. ^^ \q^ j^q^ Qj^jy ^q obscrvc accurately, but 

also by thinking to know more than the senses disclose ; 



METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. J\ 

and the telling of some fact or incident may excite curi- 
osity, deepen interest, and sustain needed attention. 
The present object may be only a stimulus to the mind 
in thought activities, and this is often true in all grades 
of instruction. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OTHER METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 

There are other methods of instruction that receive 
more or less attention in works on pedagogy. Two of 
these related methods are called the Analytic and the 
SyntJietic. 

Analytic and Synthetic. 

In the analytic method, knowledge is taught by begin- 
ning with a whole and proceeding by an analytic process 
. , . , to its elements or constituent parts. In the 

Analytic and ^ 

Synthetic synthctic method knowledge is taught by 
Methods, beginning with the elements or constituent 
parts and proceeding by synthesis to the whole. Thus, 
a word is taught analytically when it is first presented 
as a whole, a sound or a form, and then by analysis its 
elements, sounds or letters. A word is taught syntheti- 
cally by beginning with its elementary sounds or its 
letters and then forming the word by a synthesis of 
these elements. 

But, as Sir William Hamilton has shown, analysis 

and synthesis are necessary correlates. If either is in- 

Anaiysis cludcd in a complete process of knowing, the 

s nthtsis other is also present. Thus, the analysis 

Correlates, of a word into its elements is attended with 

a synthesis of these elements into the word. The mind 

passes from the whole to the parts, and then from the 

parts back to a more definite whole. The same is true 

72 



OTHER METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 73 

when the initial process is synthetic. The mind passes 
from the synthesized whole back to its constituent parts, 
and thus a vague whole may be made more definite. 

It is thus seen that there is no complete separation of 
analysis and synthesis in methods of instruction. The 
method called analytic includes synthesis, and the method 
called synthetic includes analysis. It is the initial pro- 
cess that gives name to the method. When instruction 
begins with analysis, it is called analytic, and when it 
begins with synthesis, it is called synthetic. 

It has been claimed that all subjects are best taught 
by the analytic method, that is, by beginning with the 
whole. This may be true in teachino^ objects . , 

•' o J Analytic 

that can be presented to the mind as a whole. Method not 
as a plant, an animal, a picture, a machine, General, 
etc., but all subjects cannot be thus presented. Biog- 
raphy and history cannot thus be taught, since at first 
the pupil has no known whole to analyze. He reaches 
the whole by a progressive synthesis of elements as they 
are knoiun. A knowledge of the history of a country, 
for example, is necessarily reached by synthesis, the 
whole being too vague for analysis. Even the child's 
little world of home is the product of many acts of 
synthesis. In short, if the whole cannot be presented 
to the pupil's mind, instruction must begin with what 
can be presented, the parts, and the whole then reached 
by synthesis. It is not meant that the elements are 
at first known as constituent parts, for this would in- 
volve a prior knowledge of the whole. They may first 
be known as individual facts. 

In actual practice these two processes are usually 
united. This is true even in teaching the arts in which 
the pupil's activity is chiefly synthetic. In teaching pen- 



74 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

manship, the letters of the alphabet may be analyzed into 

their elements or principles, and by practice the pupils 

may learn to form these elements, and 

Their Union. '' i • i • i i , 

then to combme them mto letters, the let- 
ters into words, the words into sentences, etc. As a 
preparation for this synthetic practice, the pupils may 
be taught the analysis of each letter, and the manner in 
which letters are united in forming words ; but the fact 
remains that writing is a synthetic process, and skill is 
acquired only by synthetic practice. 

It is true that the teacher's preparation may properly 
include an analysis of the subject to be taught, and the 
Teacher's rcsults of this aualysis may guide him in 
Preparation, teaching it. But in order to make such an 
analysis, the teacher must have a knowledge of the sub- 
ject, the very result to be attained by the pupil 
through instruction. It is also true that some of the 
elements of a subject may be taught analytically even 
when the whole is reached by synthesis. 

There does not seem to be sufficient ground for an 
attempt to base general methods of instruction on these 
Applied to correlative activities. The descriptive terms, 
Processes, analytic and synthetic, are more properly ap- 
plied to processes, as in the expressions chemical analysis, 
botanical analysis, grammatical analysis, phonic analysis, 
phonic synthesis, synthetic division, synthetic exercises 
in language, synthetic construction, etc. All art processes 
are synthetic. 

Inductive and Deductive. 

Two other related mental processes, induction and 
deduction, have been made the basis of methods of 
instruction. As already shown (p. 63), a thought pro- 



OTHER METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 75 

cess is inductive when it begins with, particular facts 
and by an inference reaches a general truth or prin- 
ciple ; and a thought process is deductive induction 
when it begins with a general truth or prin- and 
ciple and by reasoning deduces included 
truths or facts. But it is not possible to make these two 
processes the basis of general methods of instruction. 
All general facts and truths are not reached by induc- 
tion, and most particular facts cannot be known by 
deduction. Only inductive knowledge can be taught 
inductively and only deductive knowledge can be 
reached deductively. It is thus seen that the inductive 
and deductive methods of teaching are each limited in 
application, and hence are not general methods. 

It is further to be noted that while inductive instruc- 
tion is synthetic and deductive instruction is, in a sense, 
analytic,^ only a comparatively small part of Limits of 
synthetic teaching is inductive and, perhaps, a ^"^^^^d °" 
smaller part of analytic teaching is deductive. Deduction. 
The constituent parts of a sentence or a landscape can 
be taught analytically, but not by deduction ; and the 
facts of biography and history may be grouped by syn- 
thesis, but rarely by induction. The inductive method 
is Umited to the teaching of inductive knoivledge, and 
hence may properly be used in teaching subjects in 
arithmetic, algebra, physics, and other inductive sci- 
ences. The deductive method has a comparatively small 

1 Several writers on pedagogy treat the inductive method as analytic, 
and the deductive method as synthetic. It is not evident on what ground 
the passing by inference from particulars to a general is called analysis, or 
the passing by reasoning from a general to its included particulars is called 
synthesis. The reverse is true. The inductive process is synthetic and 
the deductive process is analytic, certainly so far as analysis and synthesis 
are present in these processes. 



^6 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

place in elementary instruction. It is very important 
that teachers see clearly the use and limitations of induc- 
tive and deductive instruction. 

There is perhaps no method of teaching more fre- 
quently misused than the inductive. Pupils are led to 
Misuse of gei^eralize facts without seeing the reason for 
Inductive the inference. Different kinds of paper are 
burned, and pupils are permitted to infer, 
" All paper will burn." They may learn afterward that 
asbestos paper will not burn. They are shown that heat 
expands an iron ring, a brass ring, a copper ring, the 
glass stopper to a bottle, etc., and they jump to the con- 
clusion, "Heat expands all solids." They may soon 
learn that heat does not expand wood, brick, tile, ice, 
and several other solids. Attention is called to the color 
of sheep, and all the sheep seen by the pupils are white, 
and they are permitted to infer, " All sheep are white." 
These are given as specimens of the bad work done in 
the name of induction. The inference is too often " a 
leap in the dark." A teacher who uses the inductive 
method ought to know that all generahzations are not 
made by induction.^ 

Many general facts are reached by simple comparison 
and judging, and are limited to one's observation and 
experience. They are not universal truths, and should 
not be stated in the form of universals. 



Concentration and Correlation. 

In the past few years very earnest efforts have been 
made to secure the adoption of what is indiscriminately 

1 For the true nature of induction, see White's " Elements of Pedagogy," 
PP- 70-75- 



OTHER METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. yy 

called the ''Concentration" and the "Correlation" 
method of teaching, the characteristic feature of the 
method being the grouping of several studies around 
one study as a ** central core." So far, the ^ 

-^ Concentra- 

advocates of this method have not been able tion and 
to agree as to the number of such cores in a ^°"^'a*»°"- 
course of study, opinion varying from Ziller's single 
core to De Garmo's three cores. The advocates of 
Ziller's single core are not agreed, though few in number, 
on the branch that should be made this core. 

In another place ^ we have attempted to indicate the 
extent to which this principle of unification (concentra- 
tion }) can be applied in an elementary course .. 
of instruction. It is there assumed that the Groups of 
studies in a school course naturally fall into studies, 
coordinate groups or unities, each group having its own 
principle of development and law of sequence. There 
are, in the opinion of Dr. W. T. Harris,^ at least five such 
coordinate groups of elementary studies, and including 
industrial and manual art, there are six groups in the 
upper grades. No one of these six coordinate groups can 
be unified with another coordinate group except by mak- 
ing one stibordijiate to the other, both in development 
and sequence. But it is clear that coordinate groups of 
studies cannot be unified on the principle of subordina- 
tion, and so, theoretically at least, the unification of the 
studies of the school course turns on the existence of two 
or more coordinate groups in such course. Coordination 
of studies excludes subordination, 

1 *' Isolation and Unification as Bases of Courses of Study," Proceed- 
ings of National Educational Association, 1896, pp. 316-323. 

- " The Necessity for Five Coordinate Groups of Studies," — Dr. W. T. 
Harris, Proceedings of N. E. A., 1896, pp. 287-296. 



78 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

In determining the extent to which the principle of 

unification can be appHed, it is important to see the 

Correlation distinction bctwcen the unifying of alHed 

within subjects in the same srroiip and the unifying 

Coordinate J a r t 

Groups. of subjects that belong in different coordmate 
groups, and, with still more marked contrast, the unifi- 
cation of coordinate groups. There is often a close 
and obvious relation between subjects in the same nat- 
ural group, and their union at different points may be 
both feasible and desirable. Take, for example, the 
several subjects included in the mathematical group. 
Whether arithmetic, algebra, and geometry shall be 
taught tandem or the elements of algebra and concrete 
geometry be run abreast of arithmetic in the latter part 
of the grammar-school course is a pedagogical question 
that can be settled by trial, provided that in the trial 
there is a real unification, and not simply a mechanical 
mixing or sandwiching of the subjects. This is simply 
the correlation of allied subjects within a group, but the 
hitching of mathematics to history or to natural science 
is another matter. 

It is conceded that facts and even a group of facts 

in one coordinate branch may be used in a lesson in 

Facts in auothcr branch, especially for purposes of 

Different iHustratiou or for disclosing mutual relations. 

Coordinate ^ 

Groups. A teacher may, for example, use the trans- 
parency of glass to illustrate the meaning of a lucid 
style in speech or writing, but it is evident that this is 
not a correlation, much less a unification of physics and 
rhetoric as branches. The same is true when skill in 
one branch is used as an aid in teaching another, as 
when skill in drawing is utilized in teaching geography. 
There may be great advantage in grouping closely 



OTHER METHODS OF TEACHING. 79 

related facts in different branches, as in history and 
geography. But these feasible ** cross references" in 
instruction should not be magnified as the unification of 
the branches. They are incidental, not vital features 
of instruction, and in no true sense correlate the studies. 
It may be added that these interrelations of different 
branches are most common in their elements, but as 
the course advances coordinate studies become more 
and more separate, each increasingly having its own 
development, and, as a consequence, its own sequence. 

It is further evident that the unification of different 
subjects falls largely zvitJmi the details of actual iiistiiic- 
tion and is the work of the living teacher. 

. Unification 

True correlation, not to say unification, is in Actual 
something more than a mechanical mixing instruction, 
of subjects, and is practicable only when subjects have 
close interrelations. The union, for example, of nature 
lessons and literature may give now and then a beauti- 
ful, even striking, lesson, but not one tenth of the facts 
of natural science can be hitched to a poem. The 
attempt to force such associations in teaching results in 
fantastic and even ridiculous combinations. It may 
even be questioned whether the true function of nature 
instruction may not thus be seriously subverted.^ 

It is seen from this brief survey that the principle of 
unification, or, if preferred, concentration, is 

^ ' ' Most Helpful 

most readily and helpfully applied in primary in Primary 
instruction ; and that its most promising appli- instruction, 
cations are in teaching allied subjects within the several 

1 " Red Riding Hood contains some very false teaching if it is to be 
treated as science. Bring it in as science and it loses its own peculiar in- 
terest and misleads the pupils in regard to the facts of nature." — Professor 
Charles H. Judd, New York University. 



8o THE ART OF TEACHING. 

coordinate groups, and also in teaching other subjects 
that have closely related facts, as geography and his- 
tory, which have many complementary phases. In 
these several directions the intelligent application of 
the principle may give valuable results. It has, how- 
ever, small claims to be considered a general method 
of teaching. It is a principle to be utiHzed rather than 
a method to be followed. 

Special Methods. 

It is common to designate methods or ways of teach- 
ing by some characteristic feature, as the word method 

Partial ^^d the scntcncc method in reading, the ratio 
Methods, method and the measurement method in arith- 
metic, the diagram method in grammar, the interlinear 
method in language, the ratio method, the concert 
method, the individual method, the manual method, the 
topical method, etc. Several of these special methods 
have been exploited as if they determined the efficiency 
and success of school instruction. There is a strong 
tendency among teachers to make a hobby of minor 
methods and devices, and the more the mind becomes 
interested in a special device, the larger the device 
appears. As a corrective of this tendency it is im- 
portant that teachers see that these special methods 
have only a partial function, and hence a very Hmited 
application and utiUty in actual teaching. 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE DRILL. 

It is shown in Chapter IV. that one of the two 
important ends to be obtained in the teaching process, 
called the drill, is the training of power and 
skill, especially skill in the several school 
arts ; as reading, language, number, writing, drawing, 
singing, etc. These are the fundamental arts not only 
of the school but also of civilization, and the early 
acquisition of skill therein is of the highest value, not 
only as a necessary element of school training but in 
practical life. 

In Chapter III. the principles that underlie the acquisi- 
tion of skill in any art are clearly and fully stated. It 
remains to apply these principles to the con- Acquisition 
duct of the drill when skill is its special end. of skiu. 
In this study it must be kept in mind that power and 
skill are trained only by action ; that every act of the 
soul increases the power to act, and leaves a tendency 
to act again in like manner. This is not only true of 
psychical activity, but, within certain limits, it holds true 
of bodily activity, and especially of the activity of the 
senses ; as the eye, the ear, the touch, etc. What is true 
of a first action is true also of its repetition. Every 
repetition of an act increases both power and tendency, 
and thus through repetition an act may ** repeat itself" ; 
that is, become automatic (p. 45). 

ART OF TEACHING — 6 Si 



82 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

It is thus seen that the characteristic feature of the drill 
with skill as its end is repetition or practice. It is its 

Repetition spccial fuuction to providc, guide, and inspire 
and Practice, needed practice. Skill in reading or music 
cannot be acquired by simply studying the principles 
of these arts. Indeed, a knowledge of these principles 
may be acquired without any added skill in either art. 
The chief value of such knowledge is as a means of 
guiding practice, and this, as previously shown (p. 49), 
appears in a later phase of art training. Knowledge 
divorced from practice gives no skill in any art. 

Another principle to be carefully observed in conduct- 
ing a drill is that skill in any art is trained only by the 

Repetition repetition of acts, not by repeating words. 
of Acts. -phis follows from the fact that every power 
is trained by its own activity, and not by the activity of 
another power. The ability to act in a given direction 
is trained only by acting in that direction. Hence, in 
conducting a drill in any art care must be taken to secure 
a 7rpetition of acts. 

The old-time practice of teaching number combina- 
tions and tables by drills requiring pupils to repeat over 
Word 3.nd over the words, flew in the face of this 

Repetition, principle. The words were repeated as sounds 
without the mind's actually seeing the number relations 
expressed. A visitor to a primary school in one of our 
large cities witnessed a drill on the number seven which 
he thus describes, using figures to save space : 

" The pupil at the head of the class rose and said : 7 ; 6 and i 
are 7 ; i and 6 are 7, and this was repeated by sixty pupils in turn, 
each rising. The drill proceeded : 

Head pupil : 7 ; 5 and 2 are 7 ; 2 and 5 are 7 — repeated in turn 
by all. 



THE DRILL. 83 

Head pupil : 7 ; 4 and 3 are 7 ; 3 and 4 are 7 — repeated in turn 

by all. 
Head pupil: 7 ; one 6 in 7 and i over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 ; one 5 in 7 and 2 over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 ; one 4 in 7 and 3 over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil: 7 ; two 3's in 7 and i over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil: 7 ; three 2's in 7 and i over — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 ; seven I's in 7 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is 7 times i — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is 3 times 2 plus i — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is twice 3 plus i — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is once 4 plus 3 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is once 5 plus 2 — repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is once 6 plus i— repeated in turn by all. 
Head pupil : 7 is once 7 — repeated in turn by all. 
And the number seven was exhausted ! " 

It is evident that the result of this exercise would 
have been about the same if all the pupils in the class, 
except the head one, had been parrots with the gift of 
imitating sounds ! No pupil, except the one at the 
head, was obhged to see a number relation vocally ex- 
pressed. The drill, if desirable, could have been effec- 
tively conducted in one third of the time, and every 
pupil obliged to see each number relation. 

In another school twenty minutes were devoted to 
finding f of 6, f of 9, f of 12, and f of 15. The teacher 
found f of 6 and the process was repeated in Another 
turn by twenty pupils. A pupil then found Example. 
I of 9, another | of 12, and another | of 15, and in each 
case the process was repeated in turn by all the pupils. 
How easily the exercises could have been so conducted 
as to necessitate the mental solution of each example by 
all the pupils, the examples also including | of 18, | of 
24, I of 21, I of 30, I of 60, etc. In such a drill no 
pupil should be permitted to repeat after another. 



84 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

These senseless drills are given as illustrations of the 
sad waste of time in our schools by parrot exercises in 

Parrot uicre word repetition, largely by mechanical 
Exercises, imitation with no corresponding mental activ- 
ity. There is also a like waste in the repetition of man- 
ual movements by mere imitation, as in the arts of writing, 
drawing, and construction. This mechanical repetition 
has its culmination in simultaneous exercises, all the 
pupils repeating in concert the words of the leader, as 
was once common in spelling, reading, and number. 

It is also to be noted that while skill in the several 
school arts is acquired by practice in which actions are 

Guided repeated, it mitst be guided practice. No art 
Practice. jg learned by mere practice, mere doing. 
Practice to be fruitful in skill must be the realization of 
ideals in the mind. In singing, for example, the learner 
must mentally hear the tones that he is to produce with 
his voice. He thus puts his mind and his will into vocal 
effort, and thus comes into skill. The same is true in 
the manual arts of writing, drawing, etc. The hand 
produces or realizes forms that are in the mind. The 
vital thing in directing a practice drill in any art is to 
occasion in the minds of pupils clear ideals of zvJiat is to 
be produced. These inspiring ideals will not only guide 
practice, but they will awaken interest and thus secure 
attention and effort (p. 47). 

But the drill has also for its end the making of knowl- 
edge clearer and thus more permanent (p. 53), and 

Makin ^^^^ ^^^ principles above stated are of the 

Knowledge highest practical importance. It is not enough 

to secure this end that pupils repeat in woi'ds 

what they have learned. Word repetition does not add to 

the clearness of one's knowledge. What is needed is the 



THE DRILL. 85 

reknoiving of what has been known, and this with the 
view of knowing more clearly and fully. Few objects 
are fully known on first presentation. It takes, for ex- 
ample, more than one exercise to teach a cube. In the 
first observations attention is directed to the more prom- 
inent features or qualities, as the number, form, equal- 
ity, etc., of its faces ; but in the second study attention is 
more distributed, new facts are learned, and relations 
more clearly seen. The same is true of lessons on plants 
and animals, though in all strictly observation lessons, 
the repeating of knowing acts is incidental and largely 
unconscious. *'The second time," says Hoffding, ''ev- 
erything is taken in more clearly and distinctly, without 
it being necessary to think of the first time." 

The drill as a means of making knowledge clearer 
has most value in teaching knowledge that is reached 
by analysis, or by induction or other form of Maxim of 
generalization. To attain the desired end the Jesuits, 
here \\i^ process of knowing must be repeated, and each 
repetition, within limits, makes the fact or principle 
clearer. It is this principle that gave vital meaning to 
the historic maxim of the Jesuits, to vj\t:Repetitio mater 
stiidiomm. Repetition is the mother of learning only 
when the acts of learning are repeated. The mere 
repetition of words, so long the weakness of the old- 
time schools, was much better fitted by the maxim, 
Repetitio mater stjipidorum. 

No mistake in teaching has been more serious than 
the assumption that knowledge is taught by the iteration 
and reiteration of words. This was the fatal The Lancas- 
error of what is known as the Lancaster system ^^'^ system. 
of instruction, which in the early part of the nineteenth 
century occasioned so great a sensation in England, and 



S6 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

subsequently in the United States and Canada. In this 
system, designated as " monitorial and mutual instruc- 
tion," the lessons were taught orally by the master of 
the school, with responses by all the pupils in concert, 
and then these were fixed in the memory by repetition 
under monitors, the pupils being divided into groups 
for the purpose. The master taught the lessons, and 
the monitors, themselves pupils, heard the lessons re- 
peated. The pupils thus taught made apparently very 
rapid progress, and the most extravagant claims for the sys- 
tem were made by its advocates. In a letter to Governor 
De Witt Clinton in 1826, Mr. James Wadsworth said: 

" Arkwrighf s discovery and the subsequent improvement are not 
more important to the manufacture of cotton than the Lancaster system 
to an infinitely more important object, the education of our youth." 

But the sanguine advocates of the " new system " 
were doomed to disappointment. It was found by trial 
Failure of that many of the pupils could not repeat 
the System, separately what they recited with such vocal 
energy in chorus ; and that the ideas, which they asso- 
ciated with the sounds repeated, were often ridiculous 
in the extreme.^ The system was short lived wherever 
introduced, especially the monitorial feature, but its stu- 
pid concert drills continued in American schools as a 
persistent evil for fifty years. It would afford the 
writer special satisfaction to be able to express the 
belief that this evil practice has wholly disappeared from 
our schools. 

1 There has been nothing more marked or discouraging in the history 
of school progress than the readiness of teachers and school patrons to 
accept pretentious new "methods" and "systems" of teaching as revela- 
tions, pregnant with school reform. The Lancaster system is an illustra- 
tion. Even eminent educators were attracted and deceived by it. 



the drill. 8/ 

Abuses of the Drill. 

The drill is liable to obvious abuses in school training. 
One of these abuses, more properly, perhaps, misuses, 
is the aimless drill, a sort of crank-turning Aimless 
without definite aim or purpose. In no teach- ^""s. 
ing process does the teacher need clearer aims than in 
the drill. It is not enough to have in mind a general 
result to be attained, much less to be guided by a vague 
and indefinite purpose. The drill must be guided by 
clear and definite results as ends. If, for example, the 
purpose of a particular drill is to train vocal power, it 
must aim at some special vocal quahty ; if to train skill 
in number, it must aim at number skill in some special 
process. The more definite and immediate the aim of 
the drill, the higher will be the resulting skill. The 
result attained in the drill is the evidence and test of its 
success. 

Another common abuse of the drill is its continuance 
after the desired results have been attained. This may 
be characterized as the excessive drill. In Excessive 
the practice of some teachers the drill is a ^""^ 
machine to run according to the time-table, a device 
for marking time when there is nothing else to do. 
Nothing in school work can exceed the uselessness of 
some of the so-called drills to which pupils are often sub- 
jected. The greater part of a spelling drill may be 
spent on words which no pupil has misspelled or can 
misspell without a special effort. Pupils are required 
to drone over reading lessons which they know by heart, 
and to reread them when there is not the least gain 
either in grasp of thought or in its vocal expression. 
Pupils waste time in mechanically writing page after 



88 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

page, the writing actually growing worse from the top 
to the bottom of every page. They are required to 
solve problems over and over, which they first solved 
at a glance. Young pupils may be kept combining and 
separating groups of objects after they can readily add 
and subtract the corresponding concrete numbers, and 
even the abstract numbers ; they may be kept inspecting 
blocks to determine ratio which they have learned by 
heart. Drills with blocks may be made as useless and 
senseless as drills with match sticks, or even in counting 
by naming the successive numbers, and this can cer- 
tainly be made sufficiently stupid to illustrate what is 
possible in this direction. The waste of time in useless 
and excessive drills is often a serious evil in school work. 
The saving of the time thus wasted would afford time 
needed for important instruction now neglected. The 
right use of the drill requires preparation, watchfulness, 
judgment, and forethought. 

The abuses of the drill culminate in simnltajieoiis or 
concert repetition. Happily this form of abuse is not so 
Concert commou in American schools as it was thirty 
Drills. years ago. Concert exercises have now a 
small place in our best schools, and even in exercises 
in singing provision is made for individual practice and 
testing. In a few cities the use of the concert drill, ex- 
cept in singing, has been forbidden by the school au- 
thorities ; but the increasing disuse of concert drills has 
been chiefly due to the fact that teachers, as a class, are 
seeing more clearly the true function of the drill, and 
the failure of concert repetition to give desired results. 
It certainly ought to be possible to correct the misuse of 
the concert drill without absolutely forbidding its use. 
It is true that it has a comparatively small place in 



rilE DRILL. 3g 

school work, and is easily liable to overuse, but it may 
have important value when used by a wise and skillful 
teacher. This is true not only in drills in singing, but 
also occasionally in reading, and, for special purposes, 
in other exercises. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TEST. 

The purpose of the test as a teaching process is to 

disclose the results of instniction, drill or practice ^ and 

study. As stated in a previous chapter, it is 

Its Function. , . _,, , , 

the eye of teaching. T he teacher needs to 
know as he proceeds the pupil's attainments, and in the 
absence of such knowledge no skillful teaching is pos- 
sible. At every step in the teaching process the results 
of the preceding steps must be known, the clearer the 
better. Indeed, it is difficult to see how the simplest 
lesson can be skillfully given without a knowledge of 
results as the exercise proceeds. In disclosing results, 
the test guides and energizes the process, and is other- 
wise an essential factor in teaching. 

But concurrent and incidental testing of results is not 
sufficient. It is also necessary to test results when teach- 
The Formal i^^g proccsscs are Completed, the results not 

Test. Qnly of siuglc Icssons but also of series of 
lessons. This makes a place for the formal test exer- 
cise in school training, — an exercise that surveys the 
ground covered, discloses unsatisfactory results, and 
thus suggests needed supplementary instruction and 
reviews. These searching test exercises are very im- 
portant. As a rule teachers overestimate their pupils' 
attainments, and pupils as a class know much less than 
they think they know. The searching test is an eye 

90 



THE TEST. 91 

opener. It undeceives teacher and pupils ; may, indeed, 
take the conceit out of them, and in this there is often 
great gain. The test is a needed help in both teaching 
and learning. 

The results of teaching and study that need to be 
tested are knoivledge, power, and skill {^. 26), and each 
of these results is tested by means peculiar „ 

•' ^ Knowledge 

to itself. Knowledge is chiefly disclosed by tested by 
its expression, but this method of testing e^p'-^^'O"- 
what one knows is not so certain as it seems. The 
memoriter expression of knowledge is uncertain evi- 
dence that pupils know what they verbally express. 
Pupils may repeat accurately statements of facts and 
have no knowledge of the facts. Hence in testing 
knowledge by its expression it is necessary to secure 
such expression as makes evident the fact that the pupil 
knows what he says, not always an easy task. The 
essential thing is to put tests in such a way that they 
cannot be met by repeating memorized language. The 
evident exception here is in testing the pupil's ability 
to reproduce certain statements accurately, the testing 
of verbal memory, rather than knowledge, and this is 
sometimes important. 

Knowledge may also be tested by its application or 7ise, 
direct or indirect. This is sometimes a more satisfactory 
test than expression, but its special value is Application 
the evidence it furnishes that what is ex- o"" "re- 
pressed is understood, a corroborative test. It is, how- 
ever, not possible to apply this test to all teaching results, 
but it may be often used in the art studies and also in 
other branches, especially in the physical sciences. A 
pupil's knowledge of climate, for example, may be effi- 
ciently tested by the study of a continent or even a 



92 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

country. The writer once conducted such a test, using 
South America for the purpose, and the result was most 
satisfactory as evidence of the pupils' elementary knowl- 
edge of the subject of climate. The teacher should be 
watchful for opportunities to use the results of training. 
Power is tested by its exercise and this is true what- 
ever the power and whatever the direction of its activity. 
The power to see the relations of numbers in 

Power ^ 

tested by a problem is tested by its solution since this 
Exercise, j^volves the scciug of thcsc relations; and, 
for a like reason, the power to see the relations of the 
words in an English sentence is tested by its analysis, 
which involves thought analysis. Years ago the princi- 
pal of a Cleveland grammar school, who prided himself 
on his ability to teach English grammar, said at the 
close of an examination which tested the thought power 
of his pupils, " I can teach English grammar, but I can- 
not give pupils brains ! " In all tests of formal knowl- 
edge his classes stood high, but in the analysis of 
sentences requiring considerable thought power, they 
disappointed their teacher.^ The teaching of technical 
grammar to young pupils involves the gift of thought, if 
not of "brains." It certainly requires long and pro- 
gressive training in thought analysis to give young 

1 Those who advocate the early teaching of technical grammar over- 
look the fact that the relations of words in an English sentence are not 
determined by word forms, but largely by the analysis of the thought, a 
much more difficult thing. In inflected languages, the relations of the 
words in a sentence are chiefly indicated by the fovDis of the words. This 
explains the ability of French or Italian children to become proficient in 
grammar at a much earlier age than English or American children. The 
English language has comparatively few grammatical forms, and hence 
English grammar is not a form study. The grammar of an inflected lan- 
guage is a form study and largely objective. 



THE TEST. 93 

pupils the power to see the relation of words in English 
sentences, except the simplest, and for the reason that 
the discerning of these word relations is not a form or 
eye matter but a thought process. 

Skill is tested by doing or action, and usually the 
doing must be observed to determine the degree of skill. 
The pupil's skill in reading is shown by read- 
ing ; his skill in singing by singing ; his skill ^b^'^^^^Tn^'^ 
in drawing by drawing, etc. It is true that in 
the graphic arts, as writing and drawing, one's skill may 
be judged in part from specimens, but only in part. An 
important element in skill is time. It is not possible to 
judge satisfactorily of the skill of two penmen by speci- 
mens of their writing. One may have spent an hour on 
his specimen ; the other only ten minutes. A pupil who 
can write ten lines beautifully in five minutes has cer- 
tainly higher skill than one who, to write ten lines 
equally well, requires twenty minutes. Indeed, many 
of the specimens shown in school exhibits are not 
specimens of writing but of zvord drazving. The same 
is true of specimens of drawing, though perhaps in less 
degree. In order to judge of the actual skill of pupils 
in drawing, it is necessary to know the time spent on 
the final specimen and also the time spent in practicing 
upon it in preparation, the assistance received, etc. 
When the manner in which drawing exhibits were pre- 
pared is not known, but little value can be attached to 
them as evidence of the comparative skill of pupils or 
schools. Many exhibits are practically worthless as a 
means of comparing school work. 

Inasmuch as the training of power and skill is a 
vital function of teaching, it follows that the search 
for resulting power and skill is a most important func- 



94 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

tion of the art of testing. It is just here that much of 

Testin ^^^ testing in our schools is weak, not so 

Power and wcak as formerly, but still unsatisfactory. 

The tests even now used largely call for 

knowledge, this being specially true of written tests. 

The writer recently examined a written test in English 
in a large western city, a test prepared by the super- 
intendent and submitted to all the pupils in a 

Example. ^ ^ 

given grade of the schools. Twenty of the 
twenty-five questions were tests of formal knowledge or, 
more properly, of formal statements of knowledge com- 
mitted to memory. Five of the questions tested power 
or skill, but only two had special merit, and this in a 
branch in which skill is the important end sought. It is 
believed that three fifths of the written tests still used in 
American schools test knowledge, often mere memoriter 
knowledge, — what Mr. Quick, of England, calls " ex- 
amination knowledge " ; that is, knowledge carefully 
formulated and put in the memory ready for delivery 
on examination day ! 

The test exerts a positive influence on the other 
teaching processes. If the tests used in teaching em- 
influence of pbasizc knowledge, training will be sHghted 

Tests. and cramming encouraged, and this will be 
specially true when tests are satisfied by the repetition of 
language learned by heart. If the tests are narrow and 
technical, the instruction will be narrow and technical ; 
if the tests run to figures, the instruction will run to 
figures ; if the tests demand details, they may emphasize 
and make imperative all " the lumber of the text-books." 

What is true of the influence of the test on teaching is 
true, in a higher degree, of its influence on the pupils' 
work, particularly on book study. If the tests touch 



THE TEST. 95 

only the memory, the pupils will memorize ; if the tests 
touch the understanding, pupils will strive to understand 
the subjects studied ; if the tests are super- , „ 

•' *■ Influence 

ficial, the pupils' study will be superficial, on Pupiis* 
It is, indeed, not too much to say that teach- 'vvork. 
ing and study are never much wider or better than tJie 
tests by ivJiicJi tJiey are measured. It is certain that 
the work of a school never rises much above the 
teacher's tests. 

Modes of Testing. 

We have learned that knowledge may be tested by 
its expression and by its application, but it remains to 
consider the manner in which tests shall be put before 
the pupil. 

Tests of knowledge may be presented to the pupil in 
two different ways, in the form of questions and in the 
form of topics. The first is known as the Testing 
catechetic or qnestion method, and the second Methods, 
as the topic method. Questions as tests may be more 
definite, and they usually require a briefer response than 
topics.^ A topic may indicate only the general character 
of the knowledge sought, and, as a rule, the more general 
the topic, the less definite and searching it is as a test. 

The chief merit of the question method of testing 
knowledge is its tJioroiigJincss^ but this result necessarily 
depends on the character of the questions. Advantages 
Superficial questions may be met by super- of Question 
ficial answers, but, on the contrary, questions 
may call for knowledge that is fundamental. There is 
no other test of knowledge so searching and thorough 
as a series of well-directed questions. 

1 See " Elements of Pedagogy," pp. 177-182. 



96 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

The question mode of testing permits a systematic 
tmfolding of the subject, an important advantage. It 

Another gives the teacher the control of the order of 
Advantage. \\^q topics and also of the included facts, and 
thus due prominence can readily be given to the more 
fundamental and vital. Such a systematic review of a 
subject greatly clarifies the pupil's knowledge. 

While this is true in the recitation, the question mode 
of testing fails to secure systematic thought in study. 
This defect is greatest when the pupil's study consists 
in attaching ready-made answers to questions in a book, 
a process that may be made about as mechanical as 
the fitting of pegs to holes of different sizes. A pupil 
may thus learn the answers to scores of questions con- 
cerning a given country without forming a conception 
of it. His knowledge is in fragments. 

Another advantage of the question mode of testing 
is the opportunity which it affords for incidental instnic- 
Third i^on. When searching questions show that 
Advantage, explanation or illustration is needed, the same 
can be given with comparatively little sacrifice of testing 
efficiency. The pupils are in a favorable condition to 
receive such instruction, and it may usually be given in 
few words. The one result to be carefully avoided 
in a recitation is the dissipation of the test by instruction. 
It is easy for a teacher to subordinate testing to mere 
talking, the temptations to such a waste of time being 
abundant. 

To secure these advantages, the questions used as 
tests should be cleaVy concise, and definite. The first 
Character of rcquisitc in answering a question is its clear 

Questions, comprehcnsion, and hence the importance of 
its being stated clearly and concisely. An ambiguous 



THE TEST. 97 

question occasions hesitancy and confusion, and the 
same is true of a wordy question, while an indefinite 
question invites a loose and pointless answer. As a 
rule, a question should be as concise and definite as the 
answer it solicits. 

All questions that suggest the answer, technically 
called '' leading questions," are worthless as tests, and 
should be carefully avoided. The same is 

^ Questions 

true of questions that can be answered by worthless 
yes or no. Whatever may be the pupil's ^^ ^^^*^' 
ignorance, he is more Ukely to answer such questions 
correctly than incorrectly. The manner in which the 
question is asked, the suggestive look of teacher or 
fellow pupil, unconscious it may be, or some other hint, 
may make correct guessing quite easy. It usually takes 
a very dull pupil to miss a ''yes-or-no" question. The 
practice of helping pupils in recitations by leading ques- 
tions or otherwise is pernicious. It deceives the pupil 
and fosters bad habits of study. 

While questions may be excellent tests of knowledge, 
they are not so satisfactory as tests of expression. This 
weakness may be partly overcome by requir- Tests of 
ing pupils to give full and complete answers. Expression, 
answers that clearly express the thought ; but even 
this may fail to test the pupil's power to express prop- 
erly several consecutive thoughts. Many of the answers 
accepted in schools, even in recitations, consist of 
a single word or two or more words not forming a 
sentence, — answers admissible, it may be, in drills, 
or in rapid reviews, but not in a formal test exercise. 
Here, at least, pupils should be held to the complete 
and accurate expression of their knowledge. It is 
certainly not a good practice for teachers to use more 

ART OF TEACHING — 7 



98 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

words in asking questions than pupils use in answer- 
ing them. 

The most obvious merit of the topic mode of testing 

is its value as a test of expression^ omitting here any 

Topic consideration of its great merit as a training 

Method. in expression. In reciting a topic the pupil 
is obliged to tell what he knows in successive sentences, 
and this is obviously a much better test of his power of 
expression than the giving of brief answers to specific 
questions. 

The meeting of the topic test of expression also neces- 
sitates systematic thought in study. The pupil is obhged 
Training in to arrange the facts under the several assigned 

Thought, topics in some definite order. More advanced 
pupils may be required in study to make a definite analy- 
sis of the several general divisions of a subject and to 
follow these analyses in reciting. This affords an excel- 
lent training both in thinking and expression. It is not 
enough for the pupil to study knowledge as classified by 
another mind. As he advances in the course the work 
of classifying and arranging his knowledge should be 
done increasingly by himself ; and, to this end, the 
recitation must call for such study. 

A comparison of these two ways of testing pupils 
shows that they supplement each other, one being weak 
where the other is strong, and vice versa. The question 
method is strong as a searching test of knowledge, and 
this is the weak feature of the topic method, as often 
used. The question method is comparatively weak as 
a test of expression, and the topic method is strong in 
this direction. Testing by questions permits incidental 
instruction, and testing by topics affords small oppor- 
tunity for such instruction. These and other contrasts 



THE TEST. 99 

show that the best results may be secured by the union 
of the two methods in a practical manner. This may be 
accomplished by permitting pupils to recite, as union of 
well as study, mainly by topics, and following Methods, 
the recital of topics by questions or, in more advanced 
classes, interjecting questions. This may be readily 
done even in such a study as geometry. When a 
pupil in reciting a topic fails to show satisfactory 
knowledge, he should be plied with searching questions. 
This requires the teacher to be on the alert for fit 
occasions thus to increase the efficiency of the topic 
test. In primary classes questions are generally used 
both for instruction and testing, and even in sub- 
grammar grades, especially in lower classes, the topic 
method has its chief use in reviews. 

Since power and skill are largely tested by action or 
doing (p. 92), these tests are presented to the pupil in 
the form of directions. Thus : " Solve prob- Directions 
lem 15"; ''Analyze the sentence 'To err as Tests. 
is human'"; "Draw the vase on the table"; "Sing 
the measures of music on the board," etc. This, as 
must be readily seen, is a form of topic test. The 
thing to be done is put before the pupils in such a 
manner as to indicate clearly the work or task assigned. 
The same form may be used in testing certain kinds of 
knowledge. 

It is thus seen that testing is a difficult art, whatever 
the method employed. The art of asking questions 
requires a clear and systematic knowledge of Testing a 
a subject, a ready command of good English, difficult Art. 
and a distinct and intelligent aim. There has never 
been a much more stupid practice than *' the asking of 
questions from the book," now happily disappearing. 

LofC. 



lOO THE ART OF TEACHING. 

The author's questions may be models in form and ar- 
rangement, but their use degrades the teacher to a mere 
machine and reduces the recitation to a mechanical and 
lifeless routine. The only proper use of such ques- 
tions is in preparing for the recitation ; by the teacher 
as a means of increasing his skill as questioner, and by 
the pupil in testing his knowledge, especially in general 
reviews. The skillful use of the topic method requires 
a clear headed, thorqugh teacher. In the hands of a 
superficial teacher the recitation degenerates into mere 
talking about subjects, the pupils often failing to state 
what is most essential to be known, giving instead com- 
paratively unimportant details. Such recitations are 
exceedingly deceptive as tests, as well as destructive of 
right habits of study. The pupil needs to learn that 
talking at topics is not reciting topics. 

It requires no small degree of skill to conduct suc- 
cessfully an oral test, an eye-to-eye and mind-to-mind 
The Oral scarch for desired results. The difficulty of 

Test. such a test is greatly increased when pupils 
recite in large classes. This has doubtless facilitated 
the adoption of the written test, now so widely used, 
often without seeing its limitations, especially as a test 
of power and skill. 

But a more serious mistake has been made in the use 
of the concert or chorus method of testing pupils in 
The Concert classcs. This was the great error of Joseph 

'^^^^- Lancaster and the advocates of his system. 
It was taken for granted that what pupils could recite 
together in concert they knew and could tell indi- 
vidually. The intelHgent apphcation of the individual 
test exploded the system. It was found that pupils 
were reciting in concert with one voice what they 



THE TEST. 10 1 

could not tell separately and of which they had often 
no real knowledge. The writer once witnessed the 
testing of three hundred pupils as to their ability to 
sing a certain grade of music at sight. They 
sang In chorus without hesitation three pieces 
of music which they had never seen before, and the ex- 
aminer marked the class *' perfect." It was, however, 
ascertained by proper testing that not more than one 
pupil in five could sing the same pieces alone. The 
chorus singing had really been led by a few voices, and 
this is true of much concert reciting. Pupils in Sabbath 
schools are still reciting in concert the catechism and 
selections from the Scriptures ; and this, not as a means 
of learning what is recited, but to show that it has been 
learned. 

These examples ought to suffice to show the mislead- 
ing character of concert testing. It seems strange that 
such a method of testing should ever have been used by 
inteUigent teachers, but its continued use after years of 
failure is still stranger. The persistence of error in teach- 
ing seems to be an approach to the persistence of force 
in nature. 

All that has been said above emphasizes the impor- 
tance of a most careful study and mastery of the art 
of testing. What has been learned of its function and 
methods prepares the way for an intelligent study of its 
use in testing pupils in classes, especially the use of the 
oral test. This will be more fully considered in another 
chapter. 



CHAPTER IX. 
ORAL INSTRUCTION. 

There is an increasing amount of knowledge in school 
courses that must be taught by the living teacher, with- 

Oral out a text-book in the hands of pupils. This 
Lessons, jg ^^^q ^q^ Qj^jy ^f ^^ knowledge that must be 
taught objectively (p. 6i), but also of those subjects 
that find a place in the course before pupils have the 
abiUty to acquire such knowledge from books. These 
subjects, if learned by young pupils, must be taught 
orally. The demand for this oral instruction is in- 
creasing from year to year, especially in elementary 
schools; and it is vitally important that teachers 
become skillful in such instruction. Oral teaching is 
a difficult art, an art that requires most careful 
study. 

It is important to note here that there are many 
exercises in the modern elementary school, especially 

^^^ in primary classes, that are not instruction 
instruction in the scusc in which the term is herein 
used. Their guiding end is not knowledge, 
or power related to knowledge, or even skill in any 
school art. Their aim, so far as they have a con- 
scious aim, is to give bodily relief, to afford pleasure, 
even amusement, to make impressions upon the sen- 



ORAL INS TR L'C TION. 



103 



sibility, to awaken feeling, to quicken the moral sense, 
to cultivate aesthetic taste, to stimulate the imagination, 
etc. The value of these exercises is freely conceded, 
since, in the training of the young, moral, aesthetic, and 
physical development is quite as important as intel- 
lectual development. 

But these exercises, though attractive and useful, 
are not instruction. They fall in the teaching process 
only so far as they result in knowledoce or in 

, . ^ n , / -, . ^ Extent of 

such mtellectual leelmgs as mterest, curiosity, such Exer- 
wonder, etc., thus whetting the mind's appetite '''^^^• 
for knowledge. If a competent observer should seriously 
undertake the task of ascertaining the results of many 
of the exercises in primary schools, he would be surprised 
at their small contribution to the pupil's real knowledge 
or to his power to acquire such knowledge. He would 
find many exercises that result only in impressions, often 
in mere sensations. This is specially true of those myths, 
fairy tales, wonde*- stories, etc., that appeal to the sensi- 
bility and the imagination, but have Httle or no basis in 
reality as known by children. 

The question thus raised does not relate to the value 
of these exercises in school training, and it is certainly 
not a question of their comparative value, instruction 
It is simply a discrimination of school exer- Exercises, 
cises that differ in their aim and method, and this with 
the view of limiting the present study of instruction to 
that distinct teaching process that has for its end knowl- 
edge and the training of the power to know, a train- 
ing possible only through knowing. Instruction in this 
sense is a definite process and is capable of intelHgent 
study. 



I04 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Instruction Independent of Text-book. 

In order that the following suggestions may be as 
definite and helpful as possible, they are made with 
special reference to oral instruction above the third 
school year where such instruction has more definite 
knowledge as an end, and hence may be more system- 
atic in form. In the lowest srrades instruction 

Instruction ^ '^ 

in Lowest sccks to devclop primary ideas and facts, to 
Grades. ^each the common qualities and relations of 
things, their names and symbols, etc., instruction of 
the highest value, it is true, but less formal and system- 
atic than in higher grades. Moreover, much of the 
knowledge taught in primary grades is more or less 
closely related to the learning of some art, as reading, 
language, number, music, etc., instruction and drill or 
practice being united in the same exercises. Even the 
early lessons on plants and animals, and other nature 
lessons, may properly look more to the cultivation of a 
love of nature and the sense of the beautiful than to 
a real, much less a scientific, knowledge of the objects 
presented. Such instruction is necessarily free and 
more or less informal. 

We are now prepared to consider the conditions 
which are necessary to the highest success in the art of 

Necessary o^al iustructiou. Amoug thcsc requisites are : 
Conditions, ^j^ tJie faitJiful preparation of the lesson by 
the teacher^ (2) fidelity to this preparation in teaching the 
lesson, and (3) the reproduction and review of lessons by 
the pupils, first individual lessojis and tJicn series of 
lessons. It will be seen in what follows that each of 
these conditions is essential to complete success in teach- 
ing subjects orally. 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. 



I. The Teacher's Preparation. 



[05 



1. It is an axiom of oral instruction that the teacher 
must have a clear and definite knowledge of tJie subject 
taught. This preparation is important in any Knowledge 
teaching exercise, but it is essential in instruc- °^ subjects, 
tion. No one can teach another what he himself does not 
know. What the teacher knows vaguely, he will teach 
vaguely ; what he knows clearly, he may teach clearly. 

Moreover, the teacher's knowledge not only must be 
clear and definite, but it must be fresh, the result of 
recent preparation. No one can teach sue- Fresh 
cessfully out of last year's study. He must knowledge, 
bring to the work of instruction the fresh results of 
recent study. In another place ^ we have considered 
the relation of a thorough and fresh knowledge of the 
subjects taught to the easy control of pupils. The rela- 
tion of such knowledge to successful instruction is still 
more vital. The fresher the teacher's knowledge, the 
livelier his interest ; the livelier his interest, the keener 
the pupil's interest ; the keener their interest, the closer 
their attention ; and, as a result, the easier and fuller 
their mastery of what is taught. Besides, in the pres- 
ence of his class the teacher has no time for efforts to 
recall what is forgotten or indefinite, or to run down 
some new truth. All his powers need to be in ready 
command. He must be quick to follow his pupils' 
activities, to discern what they know, and to see where 
light is needed. All this requires fullness and freshness 
of preparation. 

Nor is it enough that the teacher have a thorough 
and fresh knowledge of the subject to be taught. His 

1 White's " School Management," pp. 21-26. 



I06 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

preparation must determine what is to be taught. His 

knowledge may be much wider than the proper limits of 

the lesson, since this must be adapted to the 

The Lesson. 

mental condition and ability of the pupils. 
For example, it is not possible for young children to 
comprehend the wider relations of things and events, 
and especially their causal relations. " Children," says 
Dr. De Garmo, " can make simple association of facts, 
but they see no far-reaching unifying principles." There 
may be a " causal flexus " that binds all knowledge into 
an organic unity, but young children are not philosophic 
spiders that gather knowledge by excursions over a web 
of philosophic causation. Human knowledge is the 
result of human knowing, and hence every branch of 
study has its natural phases that correspond to the psy- 
chical phases through which pupils pass as they ascend 
in the grades. This fact should be kept in mind by the 
teacher when determining the knowledge to be taught 
in a given lesson. It is often quite as important to see 
what not to teach as it is to determine what to teach. 

An oral lesson cannot be mapped out solely or chiefly 
from the standpoint of the subject to be taught. The 
Adaptation Capability of the learner must also receive 
to Capability, consideration. It is not possible, and it is 
certainly not desirable, to attempt to teach subjects 
exhaustively or even logically in primary schools. Only 
the more elementary phases of these subjects can be 
thus early taught or acquired. 

It is not necessary that all lessons to be taught orally 

should be prepared in writing, as has been urged. The 

Written cssential thing is for the teacher to know 

Outlines, clearly and fully the facts to be taught, to 

have them not only within possible reach but fresh in 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. 10/ 

mind. There may be advantage in the study of a lesson 
to note the leading facts, even to express them in the 
best possible form, but such notes will have small use 
in actual instruction. To write out all the facts to be 
taught, or, what is worse, the questions that are to be 
used in their development, is to put upon the elementary 
teacher an unreasonable burden, without any compen- 
sating increase in teaching skill. It will be found an 
excellent plan to arrange the subject-matter of a lesson 
in topics, thus indicating not only what is to be taught, 
but the order of presentation, the requisite to be next 
considered. 

2. The teacher's preparation must determine not only 
the facts to be taught but also the order of their presenta- 
tion. The facts in a simple lesson have their 

^ Order of 

proper sequence, and it is important that this Presenta- 
sequence be known and followed. The se- *'°"' 
quence to be observed in teaching facts is not neces- 
sarily their logical order. Indeed, the logical order of 
facts is usually not the order in which they are best 
taught or acquired. It is the psychical sequence of 
knowledge that chiefly determines the order of its pres- 
entation in instruction. This order usually begins with 
what is known. The maxim, ''From the known to the 
related unknown," has special application to the subject- 
matter of an oral lesson. To bring the known clearly 
into consciousness it may be necessary, as will be shown 
later, to reproduce what has been taught. 

A knowledge lesson should begin with the known and 
develop in proper order the subject, and the facts thus 
grouped should present a whole, a unit of Lesson a 
kuoivledge. It is agreed by nearly all writers ""'' 
on teaching that every lesson should be a unit, not a 



I08 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

scatteration. Facts closely related to the subject devel- 
oped may properly be introduced for explanation or 
illustration, but there should be no lugging in of facts 
for the sake of mingling different subjects. The true 
theory of concentration has no justification for the me- 
chanical mixing of studies in the same lesson. The 
attempt to make a lesson in geography, for example, 
also a lesson in arithmetic, history, literature, mythology, 
etc., is almost sure to result in fantastic combinations, 
and what is worse, in a sad dissipation of energy. 
The Ziller theory of the concentration of studies 
around one central core is accepted by few American 
educators (p. 77), and few of these would do the mix- 
ing in lessons. The subject-matter of an oral lesson 
should be presented in proper sequence, and the deter- 
mining of this sequence or order is an essential part of 
the teacher's preparation. This demands the exclusion 
of non-related facts, howsoever interesting, and the de- 
velopment of the lesson as a group of unified knowl- 
edge.^ 

3. The teacher's preparation of a lesson must also 
determine tJie metJiods to be iLsed in teacJiiiis: the several 
Methods to fcicts. As showu in a previous chapter, some 

be used. knowledge must be taught objectively ; other 
knowledge by the indirect or training method ; and 
other knowledge must be taught directly by means of 
language and illustration. The teaching of the several 

1 " Every study that is important enough to be a study has its appointed 
time in the program during which it dominates the work of the hour, and 
everything else is incidental and secondary. ... To branch off into some 
other subject, no matter how closely connected, and to become absorbed in 
its treatment, means simply to be side-tracked, to lose one's bearrings, to be 
guilty of illogical and unsystematic thinking." — Charles Aj McMurry 
in " Second Year Book " of National flerbart Society, p. 190 C 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. IO9 

facts and principles grouped in a lesson may involve 
the use of all three of these methods. Moreover, while 
methods of instruction are primarily determined by the 
nature of the knowledge taught (p. 59), there must be 
an intelligent adaptation of mctJiods to the Adaptation 
capacity of pupils. The use of the objective °^ Methods, 
method also involves the preparation of materials. 
These facts make a study of the methods to be em- 
ployed in teaching a lesson, a very important part of the 
teacher's preparation. 

In determining the order and method of presenting 
different lessons, care should be taken to avoid running 
them into one mold. It is easy to adopt a Lesson 
general lesson plan and then force the pres- ^\&ns. 
entation of every lesson into it. Such a procedure 
is almost sure to become a monotonous routine, devoid 
of spontaneity and Hfe. It hardly needed KrapeHn's ex- 
periments to show that monotony of thought and feeling 
is a source of fatigue. It is always a difficult task to 
sustain interest under the stupefying influence of same- 
ness, and this is specially true in oral instruction. 
While there must be an orderly procedure in a lesson 
from beginning to end, there must be variety and fresh- 
ness. 

The lesson plan was one of the early hobbies of the 
normal school. When the writer first began to visit 
schools, he found it easy to recognize the graduates of 
certain normal schools by their method of presenting 
lessons. In the fifties the writer gave one Early ex- 
of these general lesson plans, then coming perience. 
into vogue, a trial in teaching geography in a Cleveland 
grammar school. The plan thus tested outHned in the 
form of general topics a definite series of facts to be 



no THE ART OF TEACHING. 

learned in their order in the study of every continent 
and country. In the study of political divisions, espe- 
cially the American states, it became a dreary routine, 
and was soon abandoned for freer work under the 
guidance of special topics for each country studied. ^ 
The order and the method of oral instruction should 
have special reference to the individual character of 
the lesson to be taught. No two lessons permit pre- 
cisely the same presentation. 

It may be objected that the preparation for oral 

teaching, indicated above, is not within the teacher's 

ability, especially when several oral lessons 

Objection. \ . / ., 

are to be given daily in addition to other exer- 
cises. But this is an objection to the attempt to teach 
many subjects orally, excepting in lower grades where 
lessons are necessarily brief and closely related. In 
upper grades, it is far better to give fewer oral lessons 
each week than to give these lessons in a haphazard 
way. Oral teaching is a difficult art, and success is not 
possible in the absence of thoughtful preparation. Even 
the brief lessons in primary schools need to be well pre- 
pared. 

2. The Lesson. 

The first requisite in teaching the lesson infidelity to 
its preparation. The lesson should be taught as 
planned, the facts presented in proper order, and with 

1 The reader who has seen the writer's early " Class Book of Geography " 
(now out of print), may recall its special topics for the study of each 
particular country, topics largely based on the descriptive text of the 
geography in use. This little manual had its origin in this Cleveland 
grammar school, a school now somewhat famous. The manual was 
especially prepared for the use of the pupils in this school, but it took 
wings and flew over the country. 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. Ill 

the highest possible skill in the use of methods. There 
should be orderly progress from start to finish, with 
the least possible dissipation of energy. The Fidelity to 
aim should be to lead the pupils to clear and Preparation, 
definite knowledge by their own activity. At every 
step it should be kept in mind that true teaching is 
the occasioning of right activity in the pupil ; that it is 
the pupil's mental activity, not the teacher's, that de- 
termines the result. 

This advice was recently given a company of 
teachers : 

" Throw your preparation out the window. Look into your pupils' 
faces for inspiration. Let them ask questions. These questions 
will show what they wish to know, and what you should teach." 

This is certainly very bad advice even for a primary 
teacher. Pupils may thus be kept mentally active, 
even tiptoeing, but in most cases there is a Teacher's 
sad dissipation of activity. It is the teacher's Function, 
function to determine the aim and purpose of a given 
exercise ; and the quality and value of the pupil's thought 
activity will depend largely on the teacher's direction 
and stimulation. Not only should every lesson have a 
definite end, but the teacher should guide the pupils to 
that end. The questions of pupils, when pertinent, 
should receive due attention, but these should not deter- 
mine the subject-matter of instruction. There should be 
few diversions thus occasioned, and these should be fully 
under the teacher's control. The teacher is the guide 
and occasioner of the pupil's activity. 

In the preparation of exercises the teacher may prop- 
erly make excursions into other studies for closely related 
facts, as well as for illustrations ; and in primary instruc- 
tion it is possible to utilize the principle of unification, 



112 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

somewhat inaptly called concentration. Here the mate- 
rials for reading and for language may be drawn from 
different sources, and the arts may often be 

Excursions ^ ■' 

into Other SO uuitcd as to make them assist each other. 

studies. Drawing, for example, may aid language, 
and, to some extent, reading. But the attempt to 
realize several purposes in an exercise usually results in 
weakness and failure, in a scatteration, not in concen- 
tration. It is not easy in teaching to kill two birds with 
one stone. A good teaching exercise is unified activity. 

The prior caution against the adoption of a fixed les- 
son plan in preparing lessons applies equally to the tak- 

Formai i^^g of the samc formal steps in teaching them. 

steps. j|- seems unnecessary to repeat that in all 
lessons the pupils should be put in the right mental atti- 
tude, and that the subject-matter of the lesson should be 
properly presented and taught. But lessons vary greatly 
in subject-matter, and hence the steps taken in teaching 
them must vary. All knowledge is not acquired by the 
same mental processes, and it follows that all knowledge 
cannot be taught in the same way or by the same steps. 
There are lessons, especially in higher grades, in which 
Herbart's five formal steps may be used with advantage; 
but there are many lessons, especially in lower grades, 
which cannot be forced into such a formal procedure 
without a sacrifice of interest and success. The actual 
process of instruction should be varied, free, and vital, 
— not, however, unplanned and haphazard. 

3. The Reproduction of the Lesson. 

It is the opinion of American educators, who have 
good opportunities for forming an intelligent judgment, 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. II3 

that much of the oral instruction in our schools, especially 
below the fifth school year, runs to waste and disappears ; 
that this is not only true of mere •* impres- 

»> 1 1 .^ • 1 r- Weakness of 

sion lessons, but is also true of exercises that American 
aim to teach knowledge. An inquiry as to '^^^'^^'^ff 
the cause of this waste seems to disclose the fact that it 
is largely due to a failure to utilize the results reached, 
whether these be knowledge or power, — a failure to 
correlate properly the knowledge learned in one lesson 
with succeeding lessons; a failure to keep in hand, 
if the expression is permissible, the results reached 
by instruction. Lessons are given well, it may be very 
skillfully; but, as a rule, the results are not properly 
reviewed and fixed. Foreign educators who have 
visited American schools express admiration for the 
skill, even brilliancy, of our teachers, especially women, 
in giving oral instruction ; but they do not fail to note 
their weakness as a class in fixing in mind what has 
been taught, in utilizing results. "It is more impor- 
tant," says Diesterweg, "to retain what has been 
learned than to learn something new and forget what 
preceded." 

What is specially needed to strengthen oral instruction 
in American schools is the reproducHoji of lessons by the 
pupils, a practice in which trained German 
teachers specially excel. Pupils should have ^ToTT 
needed opportunity to express what they learn ^"^°"s- 
as the lesson progresses, and, at its close, they should 
state fully and clearly all important facts learned, not 
the mere details, but the essential facts. This reproduc- 
tion may be made not only a fine test of knowledge and 
ability, but also an admirable training in thinking, and 
in the clear expression of knowledge. 

ART OF TEACHING — 8 



114 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

It is true that a skillful lesson is a training not only in 
knowing, but also in the expression of what one knows ; 
it is also true that such a lesson is a continued testing 
of the pupil's thinking and knowledge ; but the pupil's 
mental activity during a lesson is under the teacher's 
direction and stimulation. Results are thus reached, 
and even relations are seen which are beyond the pupil's 
unaided effort. In the reproduction of a les- 

Reproduc- ^ 

tion at Close SOU, the pupil comcs to the front and the 
of Lesson, tcachcr rctircs, and this is specially true 
when the reproduction is guided by topics rather than 
questions, and still truer when guided by neither ques- 
tions nor topics. In brief lessons the pupil knows what 
he has learned, and needs only practice in its expression. 
A skillful reproduction of oral lessons in American 
schools would more than double their value. 

But it is not enough that lessons be reproduced at the 
close. They should be again reproduced in all essential 
facts at the opening of the next lesson, and especially 
should this be done when the lessons are closely related. 
Whatever may be true of the correlation of the different 
branches in a course of study, the successive lessons in 
Correlation cach brauch should be closely correlated 
of Lessons, when this is possible. It is a serious mis- 
take to teach the successive lessons in a given branch, 
each without reference to those that precede or follow. 
The successive lessons should be so related in instruc- 
tion that the pupil's progress may utilize all the steps 
that have been taken. This should be specially true of 
lessons that constitute a related series. It is not enough 
that the facts in a given lesson be presented in their 
proper order, but there should be a proper sequence in 
lessons ; not necessarily a logical sequence, but a natu- 



ORAL INSTRUCTION. 



115 



ral or psychical sequence, the passing from one group 
of facts to a related higher group. 

This suggests the importance of reproducing lessons 
in series, as well as the reproduction of the separate les- 
sons. Whenever a group of closely related lessons is 
completed, there should be a reproduction of Reproduc 
the series by the pupils. What is worth tioninseries. 
teaching is worth fixing in the memory, not as tied-up 
facts to be given out in an examination and then forgot- 
ten, but as a part of the pupil's comprehensive and sure 
knowledge of a subject or branch. The value of such 
training is shown by the admirable manner in which 
German pupils meet searching tests that cover several 
years of instruction. 

The necessity of reviewing studies has been called in 
question, it being assumed that what is once known 
well will be abiding, an assumption not sus- 
tained by experience. But it may certainly ^^^'^^'• 
be questioned whether pupils can know subjects well if 
they have not seen their relations to the other subjects 
in a series. The review of a branch of study as a whole 
is always helpful. 

It is not meant that the reproduction of lessons by 

pupils should be exclusively oral. On the contrary, as 

pupils acquire skill in writing, the oral repro- 
1 , . 1 • , , Written Re- 

duction may be wisely supplemented by the production of 

written, the successive lessons being repro- l^^^°"s- 

duced in writing, and finally copied in a blank book used 

for the purpose. This is not only an excellent practice 

in the accurate expression of one's knowledge in writing, 

but it greatly facilitates reviews from time to time. It 

is, however, important that special care be taken to 

secure the use of correct written forms in all such work. 



Il6 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Careless and inaccurate written work results in bad 
habits in writing, habits that become a serious hin- 
drance in acquiring skill in the use of correct written 
forms (p. 214). 

Nor should these reproduction exercises be Hmited to 

the oral and written expression of what is learned. 

Whenever practicable, the facts and princi- 

Reproduc- ^ ^ 

tion by pies Icamcd should be applied or illustrated 
Application. ^^ ^j^^ pupils in assigucd seat work. Some 
lessons, as in physics, may properly be supplemented 
by the solution of practical problems ; other lessons 
by graphic illustrations, as map drawing and modeling 
in geography, etc. The hand has an important function, 
not only in utilizing, but in clarifying the results of oral 
instruction. 



CHAPTER X. 
INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 

Sir Oracle in pedagogy cries : " Throw text-books out 
of the window. Teach every subject as if there were no 
text-book in the universe." In recent years The 
this oracular advice in varying forms has been Text-book, 
so often repeated, and with such emphasis, that not a 
few teachers have come to beHeve that the use of text- 
books by pupils belongs to a by-gone regime in school 
training. Indeed, there are teachers who, if their pupils 
should be caught by a visitor reciting a text-book lesson, 
would have the traditional feeling of the man caught 
with one of his neighbor's sheep on his shoulders ! 
They have such a holy fear of being called an old 
fogy that they are' not a little distressed over the fact 
that it is not possible to teach reading without the use 
of a book ! The presence of the book suggests an old- 
time regime. They feel that reading ought to be taught 
without a book in the hands of pupils. 

This effort to discredit the use of text-books in school 
instruction is strangely paralleled by an equally earnest 
and more intelligent effort to promote the Reading 
reading of books by children and youth. Movement. 
This effort takes the form of children's reading circles, 
circulating school libraries, early literature exercises, 

117 



Il8 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

etc. This reading movement assumes that books con- 
tain something worth knowing; that the intelHgent 
reading of good books is a source of wisdom and 
culture. 

Moreover, it is conceded by inteUigent educators that 
one of the very important functions of school training 
Reading IS to givc pupils the ability and the desire 
the Key. to read thoughtful books. Reading is the 
key that unlocks the recorded thought, acquisitions, and 
experience of the race. *' Reading," says Lowell, ''is 
the key which admits us to the whole world of thought 
and fancy and imagination, to the company of saint 
and sage, of the wisest and wittiest at their wisest and 
wittiest moments. It enables us to see with the keenest 
eyes, to hear with the finest ears, and to Hsten to the 
sweetest voices of all time." 

But the ability to read the printed page does not 
come ''by natur." It is acquired by practice, just as 
Husking every other art is acquired. The abihty " to 
Thought, pick thought out of its verbal husk," as Dr. 
Woolsey, of Yale, once defined reading power, is trained 
by Jmsking thoitght, and in no other way. The power 
to read books is not acquired by flitting from page to 
page, skimming for information or entertainment, and 
skipping all passages that require earnest thought. In 
a masterly address at Asbury Park, in 1894, on "The 
Study of Literature," Professor Moulton, of the Chicago 
University, stated that the weakness of his students in 
literature is "not that they are deficient in taste or 
judgment, but simply that they have not the power to 
read,'' and, for the reason, that " they have dissipated 
this power by skimming newspapers and magazines," 
and, as he might have added, by skimming books. 



INS TR UC TION AND BOOK STUDY. 119 

The aim of book study and reading is the same, to 
wit, to husk the author s thought. Study is simply more 
intensive than reading, a more earnest and Aim of 
persistent effort to get the author's meaning ; ^°°^ study, 
but reading that fails to do this is not reading in any 
true sense. It is through the study of books that the 
pupil comes into the power to master books, and hence 
book study has a very important place in school train- 
ing. The chief value of the writer's school and college 
training resulted largely from the opportunity thus 
afforded him to attack and master books, books that re- 
quired earnest and thoughtful study. He regrets that 
this was not supplemented more by the study of things 
and phenomena, especially in the natural sciences, 
but nothing could be a substitute for those years of 
book mastery. The decline in book study has been 
attended with a marked neglect and slight of books. 
''For many years," says Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, "I 
have been in the habit of asking young men con- 
cerning the text-books which they had used in the 
high school or academy. Not one in ten has been 
able to tell me the names of the authors of these 
books." 1 

What is needed in American schools is not the non- 
use of text-books, but their proper use ; and this involves 
a rational union of instruction and book study, union of 
the latter increasing as pupils advance in the ^gn^'^B^o'JJj" 
course. This union is one of the important study, 
problems in American education, a problem that can 
not be met by gush over the so-called German method 
of oral teaching — a method dependent on peculiar 
German conditions, and one that is not wholly satis- 

1 Proceedings of N. E. A., 1899, P- S^?- 



I20 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

factory even in Germany.^ It is the duty as well as 
the privilege of American teachers to develop and per- 
fect an American method of teaching, one adapted to 
American conditions and vitally meeting American needs. 
The objections to the use of text-books are usually 
based on the assumption that such use necessarily 
Memoriter involvcs the Committing of the text to mem- 
Methods. Qj-y Indeed, it is common to characterize 
the text-book method as the memoriter method of teach- 
ing. It is now over fifty years since Horace Mann, 
Henry Barnard, Calvin E. Stowe, David P. Page, and 
other early leaders in American education, called at- 
tention to the weakness of the memoriter method, and 
urged a more rational method of teaching. If our 
observations are trustworthy, the memorizing of text- 
books has a small place in our best schools. Indeed, 
there is reason to fear that in many schools the memory 
now receives too little attention. There are definitions 
and principles in nearly every branch which, when 
understood, should find a sure place in the memory. 
Literature abounds in gems of thought and sentiment 
which, treasured in the memory, enrich the Hfe. Nor 
can it be asserted as a principle of teaching, that nothing 
is to be memorized which is not perfectly understood. 
There is a little perfect understanding of truth by the 
young. Every intelligent person has carried in his 
memory statements of truth, as verses of Scripture, 
which only the experiences of life have made plain. 

1 The fact cannot be denied that the method, with its great advantages, 
has serious disadvantages. The child learns too little to help himself, and 
depends too much on the teacher. As a result when he leaves school in 
most cases his intellectual culture ceases. He is too little accustomed to 
help himself out of books. S^Free tj'anslation\ — Dr. Frederick Pauslen, 
University of Berlin, in the Deutsche Literatur Zeitung. 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 12 1 

Moreover, it is a mistake to suppose that the memori- 
tcr method is confined to the use of text-books. We have 
seen in recent years more memoriter work in Memonter 
classes not using a text-book than in classes work, 
using a book, and certainly with less reason. It is com- 
mon to see definitions, principles, and even rules written 
upon the blackboard, and then copied by pupils and 
learned by heart. These copied statements, if original, 
are seldom so good as those found in standard text- 
books, and are often much inferior to them. In some 
schools the class books thus filled by the pupils are really 
skeleton text-books, with little merit. 

Proper Use of Text-books. 

The use of a book the first three years of school is 
chiefly limited to reading, including spelling ; and read- 
ing may be so taught during these years as use in 
to give pupils considerable power in the Reading, 
mastery of the printed page. Indeed, reading should 
initiate the habit of book study, but to this end, the 
reading lesson must be made an effective training in 
thought reading. The pupils must be taught the con- 
cepts and ideas which words express, and then be led 
to a clear grasp of the thought expressed by words. 
All true reading is thought reading, as shown in a sub- 
sequent chapter (XVI.). 

The teaching of number presents the next opportunity 
for the use of a book, and this may be improved to advan- 
tage as early as the third school year. The use in 
elementary arithmetic stands next to the reader Number, 
as a means of training children in thought reading, and 
especially is this true when it contains numerous simple 



122 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

problems for study, grasp, and solution. There is no 
more effective training for a child in thought reading 
than the grasp of the simple relations between concrete 
numbers expressed in language. The printed manual 
has several important advantages over number exer- 
cises written on the board (Chap. XX.). 

In the fourth or fifth school year, an elementary man- 
ual of geography may properly be added to those in read- 
use in other i^g and arithmetic. There is no book better 
Branches, suitcd for pupils of this age than a good 
elementary geography. The oral lessons of the previous 
years have given the pupils a clear knowledge of many 
primary facts, and the test is accompanied with maps 
and illustrations which greatly assist in its mastery. 
No elementary branch permits a more complete and 
satisfactory union of oral teaching and book study 
during this intermediate period. In the last three years 
of the grammar school course, the study of physiology 
and hygiene. United States history, and English gram- 
mar (last two years) afford increasing opportunities for 
the study of books. 

It is thus seen, without going more into details, that 
even an elementary course of study affords opportunities 
for the union of oral instruction and book study, with 
increasing power on the part of the pupils to master the 
printed page. This leads to the question. How can oral 
teaching and book study be so united during these years 
as to give pupils, not only clear knowledge, but effective 
training in book mastery, in husking thought .-^ This 
suggests a preliminary inquiry as to the nature of oral 
instruction when based on a text-book. 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 1 23 

Instruction based on the Text-book. 

The first suggestion is that such instruction must 
have a close relation to book study by the pupils. If 
the several subjects are taught independently of the text- 
book, the necessity for study will be removed, and the 
use of the book, if one is used, will be apart from its chief 
purpose, to wit : the training of the power to ^s chief 
acquire knowledge from books. This power Purpose, 
can be trained only by successful book study and mas- 
tery. It follows that the chief purpose of oral instruc- 
tion when based on a book lesson, is to prepare the pupil 
for the intelligent study of the text. In other words, in 
the desired union of oral instruction and book study the 
former must be made preparatory to the latter. This 
means that the necessity for study is not to be obviated 
by the instruction, but rather that success in study is 
thus to be made possible. 

When book lessons are assigned, instruction should 
be given only when needed and only to the extent 
needed. This excludes the teaching of the when to 
lesson exhaustively and without reference to ^^ &^v^"- 
the author's treatment. It is feared that oral instruction 
often breaks down study by removing all necessity for 
the pupil's effort to know the author's meaning. This 
is not the tmion of instruction and study, but the sub- 
stitution of instruction for study, the subversion of the 
book's function. 

It is evident that the nature and extent of preparatory 
instruction will depend not only on the age and ability 
of the pupils, but on the nature of the subject its Nature 
and the character of the text-book used. In ^^^ Extent, 
arithmetic the definitions, principles, and rules are 



124 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

reached by inductive generalization, and the examples 
and problems in the book may afford the necessary data 
for the pupil to make these generalizations. The only 
instruction needed is indirect, there being no necessity 
to tell pupils anything directly. The same is true in 
English grammar. The facts and laws of language are 
best reached by the study of language. The relations 
of words in the sentence are, for example, learned by 
the study of sentences. The method is objective, lan- 
guage itself being the object presented and studied. 
The material for this study may be quite fully pre- 
sented in the text-book, and comparatively little prepara- 
tory instruction may be required. On the contrary the 
book may treat each subject in a logical order, begin- 
ning with definitions, and much instruction may be 
necessary to prepare pupils for successful study. Few 
pupils mastered without preparatory instruction the old- 
time text-books on English grammar. 

But in such information studies as physiology and 
hygiene and history, it is possible for pupils to master 
Information the book with less preparatory instruction, 
studies. j|- is true that the author may not present all 
the facts which the pupils should learn, and the order in 
which facts or events are presented may not be in ac- 
cordance with the teacher's views, but nothing is gained 
by '' throwing the book out of the window." This will 
deprive the pupil of the opportunity to acquire book 
power, the ability to master books. It is to be kept in 
Important mind that knowledge is not the only end in 

End. view in teaching, but, what may be more im- 
portant, the training of tJie pupil s power to acqnire knowl- 
edge from books. 

This leads us back to the suggestion that, when books 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 1 25 

are Studied, over instruction is to be avoided. As already 
stated, it is possible to teach a subject so fully as to re- 
move all necessity for book study. This over 
error is often seen in visiting high schools and instruction, 
even colleges. We were recently present at an exercise 
in civics in an eastern high school. The teacher talked 
on the subject under consideration during the 

. . Examples. 

entire lesson period. JNot a question was 
asked, not a pupil said a word ; and, so far as we ob- 
served, not a note was taken. In another high school 
an exercise in physiology was witnessed. The teacher 
developed the lesson mainly as it was presented in the 
book in the hands of the pupils, and this was done 
without testing in any way the pupils' knowledge of the 
subject. In reply to a question after the dismissal of 
the class, the teacher stated that she felt obliged to 
teach the lesson thus because of the inability of the 
pupils to study. She added that it took most of the 
first year to teach the pupils to study a book lesson. 
The surprise was that they learned to study even in 
one year under such instruction. 

But high school teachers are not in this fault sinners 
above all men who fill the teaching office. Some years 
ago, when in an official position, we witnessed a coiiege 
a recitation in analytics in an Ohio college. Example. 
The professor developed the lesson on the board fully, 
and, it may be added, thoroughly, his effort being a very 
faithful reproduction of the author's treatment in the 
book in the hands of the students. Not a question was 
asked that could not be answered by yes or no, or even 
without vocal effort by a nod or shake of the head. 
The exercise closed, and we were about to enter another 
room, when we were stopped by two students with this 



126 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

question, '' Beg pardon, Mr. White. How did you like 
our lesson } " This was a poser, as we did not wish to 
say a word that would be disparaging to the professor. 
Our wits came to us and we answered in the most indif- 
ferent manner, *' The professor recited admirably ! " 

These illustrations suffice to show the kind of work 
that is likely to be done by teachers who accept the 
throw-the-book-out-the-window injunction as sound ped- 
agogic wisdom. When subjects are thus taught, it is 
idle formally to assign lessons from books. The most 
superficial study, if any, is sure to be the result. 

This leads to the suggestion that all needed prepara- 
tory instruction may often be given in the assignment of 
Assignment ^^^^ lessoit, this being specially true in higher 
of Lessons, gradcs. Few teachers realize how fine a test 
of teaching abihty and success is the manner in wliich 
lessons, and especially book lessons, are assigned. A 
very good judgment of a teacher's work may often be 
based on this simple test. " Take the next chapter ; class 
dismissed," is sufficient ground for dismissing a teacher 
from further consideration if one is looking for a first- 
class instructor. 

A lesson for study should be assigned in a definite 
and suggestive manner. The work to be done by the 
pupils should be clearly indicated, and needed help 
given. Sometimes this assistance may be a simple ref- 
erence to a subject previously studied ; in another case 
it may send the pupils to another book, this being often 
true in biography or history. Time spent in the proper 
assignment of a lesson saves time, not only in study, but 
in the teaching of the lesson. There is no such help to 
success in study as the definite, suggestive, and inspir- 
ing assignment of the lesson. 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 12/ 

But it is not enough that lessons be properly assigned. 
It is equally important that the teacher be faithful to such 
assignmoit in the recitation. A recitation that secures 
thorough preparation always has a good memory. The 
teacher who forgets or, for other reasons, fails Fidelity to 
to test the preparation of his pupils in the Assignment, 
directions indicated in the assignment of the lesson will 
not long secure faithful study. If there be a probability 
that their work will not be tested, most pupils will take 
the chance and neglect study. 

The writer holds in pleasant memory a teaching exer- 
cise that most happily illustrates the foregoing principles 
and suggestions. It was the skillful work of Model 
a teacher of history in a city high school in Example. 
Ohio ; and is best described in the language of a visitor 
to the school, as follows : 

" The day I visited the class room of this famous teacher of history, 
the lesson was the reign of Henry VII. The recitation was nearly 
concluded when I entered, but the work which I witnessed was in 
every way most admirable. Ten minutes before the close of the 
period, the teacher entered upon the assignment of the next lesson, 
which was on the reign of Henry VIII. (first half). She skillfully 
analyzed the reign, giving the important topics to be studied ; indi- 
cated what was most important to know under each topic, and for 
additional information, referred the pupils to several other histories 
in the public library, giving page and often paragraph. All this was 
noted by the pupils whose facile pencils followed the assignment. 
Thus in eight minutes she had put before the pupils clearly and defi- 
nitely with needed guidance the work which she expected them to 
do, and they were evidently deeply interested in the lesson. 

" At the close of the session I was in the public library (fortunately 
in the same building), chatting with the librarian, who was an old 
friend, when the door opened, and in came the high school class in 
history, with note books in hand. ' You must excuse me now,^ 
there comes Miss A 's class. That woman 



128 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

gives me more trouble than all the other teachers in the city ; but I 
like it. She is a great teacher.' He took from the shelves the his- 
tories called for, and they were taken to the study tables. He looked 
over the pupils' notes, and then took down other histories (he was 
a historian) and placed them, opened to the right page, on the 
tables. Forty minutes were spent by the pupils in this study, and 
they left with helpful notes. 

" I returned the next day to witness the recitation. I need not say 
that it was admirable from start to finish. The teacher did not give 
a lecture or talk on the reign of Henry VHI. She had sent her 
pupils to books for information, and now they ' had the floor.' 
They told well what they knew on the topics outlined, showing that 
they had read books to some purpose. The recitation was full of 
interest and enthusiasm. It closed in time for the assignment of the 
next lesson." 

Possibly some reader may be objecting that such 
ideal work is possible only in a highly favored school. 
"What," he may be asking, ''can teachers 
do who have no pubhc library at hand.?" 
They can certainly do a similar work. Is there a 
teacher of United States history, in even a rural school, 
that cannot have two or three histories on his table } 
There are few neighborhoods in which one or two his- 
tories could not be borrowed for such a purpose. Of 
course, such work requires preparation on the teacher's 
part. He cannot thus use books if he does not read 
them ; does not know what assistance they can afford his 
pupils. It is evident that pupils thus taught are acquir- 
ing the ability to get knowledge from books. 

It is seen from the foregoing discussion that there are 
two errors which should be avoided in the use of text- 
books. These are (i) the requirinsf of pupils 

Two Errors. , ^ ^ ^ ' ^ i . , , , 

to master book lessons for which they have 
not been properly prepared, and (2) the removal of the 
necessity of study by too much instruction. It is easy 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY. 



29 



to make either of these mistakes. The general principle 
to be observed when books are studied is that assist- 
ance should be given to pupils only when it is 7ieeded. 
It is a mistake to give such instruction in advance as 
will deprive pupils of the benefit and joy of mastering 
difficulties by their own efforts ; and this is true whether 
mental training or knowledge be the end sought. Every 
experienced teacher usually knows in advance what 
instruction, if any, is needed ; and instead of leaving 
his pupils to sure defeat, he will throw needed light 
upon anticipated difficul- 
ties, and thus enable his 
pupils to overcome them 
with the feeling that the 
victory is their own. It 
is one thing to solve a 
problem for a pupil and 
thus rob him of the sense 
of victory, and quite an- 
other to assist him to 
solve it. 

It may be added that 
the instruction needed 
by pupils as a prepara- 
tion for successful study 
grows less as they ad- 
vance in the course, and, 
as a result, acquire in- 
creasing power to master 
books. A like relation 

holds between oral instruction and book study in school 
training. As the one decreases the other increases, as 
shown in the graphic illustration above. 

ART OF TEACHING — O 



\ 




High 


\ 


CD 


School. 


\ 





14 to 18. 


\ 







\ 


?s 




\ 






^ ~ \ 


CO 




r- 


y H 






\ c: 


Grammar 




\ ^ 


School. 


-z. 


\ -< 


10 to 14. 


CO 






H 






XI 






c 













—1 




Primary 







School. 


z 




6 to 10. 



130 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

Enough has been said to make evident the importance 
of pupils' acquiring in school the art of study, and in- 
creasingly the art of book study. The unchallenged 
Neglect of charge that the pupils promoted to high 

study. schools do not, as a class, know how to study 
is a pretty serious indictment of the grammar school. 
Teachers who have had twenty or more years' experi- 
ence in high schools agree that pupils now admitted 
to the high school cannot attack and master a book 
lesson so well as the pupils who were admitted twenty 
years ago ; and this decline in book power is generally 
attributed to the absence of needed book study in the 
grammar schools. It may be a question whether this 
result is not due in part to the large number of teachers 
under whose training pupils now pass in reaching the 
high school, teachers with varying ideals and skill, some 
undoing the good work done by others. The colleges 
repeat this complaint against the high school and acad- 
emy, though, perhaps, not so unanimously or strongly. 

In seeking a remedy for this alleged decline in book 

power, it is helpful to see at the outset that the art of 

study cannot be formally taught to pupils. 

cannot be It is rather an art that is learned only by its 

taught. intelligent exercise. Both the art and the 
habit of study are acquired by actual study under help- 
ful conditions and stimulus. They are developed in the 
pupil by his own activity and effort, largely in meeting 
school requirements. The searching recitation is both 
the occasioner of study and the test of its results. Indeed, 
the character and the degree of the pupil's study are 
largely determined by the manner in which lessons are 
assigned, and the character of the subsequent recitation. 
The study of pupils as a class never rises higher than the 



INSTRUCTION AND BOOK STUDY, 131 

teacher's tests. It is what is required and done that tells, 
not what is talked about and advised. The teacher 
must see that pupils study in the right way, and the 
recitation must make this right way a necessity. 

Another observation seems important. The success 
of the pupil's study depends largely on his forming 
clear and precise ideas, and these at first ^. ^ , 

^ ' First Study 

necessarily He in a narrow field. The wider of subjects 
the ground covered in elementary study the Harrow, 
more indistinct and vague will be the knowledge ac- 
quired. In acquiring the art of study there is great 
advantage in first learning a few things thoroughly. 
The pupil must know the elements of a subject before he 
is prepared for a discursive and wide survey of it. The 
process of widening one's knowledge always involves 
the possession of some definite knowledge to widen. 

There is much practical wisdom in Alexander Bain's 
suggestion that in its early stages instruction should be 
narrow and thorough, narrow in order that Dr. Bain's 
it may be thorough. Discursive and wide in- suggestions, 
struction comes later. Dr. Bain goes so far as to urge 
that one good text-book is sufficient while the elements 
of a branch are being learned ; this to be mastered before 
others are taken up. It goes without saying that these 
suggestions are not in harmony with the present trend 
in school training. 

The criticism is increasing in volume that too much 
is now attempted in grammar and high schools, not 
simply too many studies, but too wide and 

r • \ r ixiiA Criticism. 

hence superficial treatment of each. It looks 

as if the so-called " enriching of the course of study " 

may be crowding study out of the course. 



CHAPTER XL 

CLASS INSTRUCTION. 

In the preceding pages, the art of teaching has been 
considered without reference to the number of pupils 
taught, and the principles reached apply equally to the 
teaching of one or several pupils in a given exercise. 
But it does not require a very wide experience or obser- 
vation to discover that it demands different as well as 
higher skill to teach twenty pupils in a class than is 
necessary to teach a single pupil; and this is true 
whether the exercise be one of instruction or driUing 
or testing. 

The difficulty involved in teaching pupils in classes 
increases with the number of pupils taught. While 
Number of thcrc may be many teachers who can teach 
Pupils. three or four pupils about as well as one, 
there are comparatively few persons who can teach 
large classes successfully. Indeed, the skill required 
to teach forty pupils in a class may be more than double 
the skill required to teach twenty pupils. Educators of 
experience usually give twenty pupils as the maximum 
number for satisfactory class work by the average 
teacher. But it is evident that this maximum will vary 
with the nature of the exercise, the grade of the pupils, 
and especially with the skill of the teacher. In certain 
exercises the most skillful teachers may do good work 
with as many as forty pupils. In most studies a ma- 

132 



CLASS INSTRUCTION. 1 33 

jority of elementary teachers cannot do their best work 
with more than ten pupils in a class, for the good reason 
that they have never studied or inteUigently practiced the 
art of class tcacJiiiig. 

Before any attempt is made to study this art it seems 
important to determine whether pupils in school should 
ever be taught in classes. It seems hardly individuai- 
worth while to study an art that should never '^"^■ 
be used. It is clear that the doctrine of individualism 
in school training, when carried to its logical conclusion, 
denies both the desirability and the possibility of class 
instruction. It asserts that school training should be 
guided at every step by the capabilities, interests, desires, 
and needs of pupils as individuals ; and then it assumes 
confidently that the individual endowments and needs 
of pupils are so unlike and varying that it is not possible 
to teach them successfully in classes. It asserts that 
no two children have powers, interests, desires, or tastes 
in common, and hence that each child must be studied 
and trained by himself. It is but a short step to the 
conclusion that '' It is Httle less than a crime to attempt 
to teach pupils in classes " ; that the imperative need of 
every child is individual instruction and training. 

It is evident that this view destroys the school, except 
the school of a very primitive type. It is not possible 
to base class instruction on the individual Assump- 
characteristics of pupils. The modern school ^^odlm^ 
assumes that children are endowed with com- school, 
mon powers, and that they face common interests and 
needs, those of the common civilization into which 
they are born. The school also assumes that the train- 
ing which best fits children for the duties and obliga- 
tions of life is based primarily on their common powers, 



134 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

interests^ and needs, and hence that this training is best 
given to pupils in groups or classes. The prime reason 
for class teaching is not its economy, although this is 
an important principle, but its efficiency as a means of 
preparation for both individual and social life. 

The foregoing assumptions of the school have been 
fully verified by an experience that has shown it to be 
Assumptions 01^^ of the most vital institutions of modern 

verified. civilizatiou. Generation after generation of 
youth have thus been trained for high service and use- 
fulness. Take out of our civilization what the school 
with its courses of training has put into it, and the change 
would be as sad as marked. What diversity of power 
and interest, what specializations in activity and enter- 
prise have come out of the common discipline of the 
American school and college ! Nor will it suffice to 
claim that all this marvelous diversity and specialization 
in effort exist in spite of the class training of the school 
and college. The facts do not warrant the claim. The 
most that can be asserted with reason is that greater 
adaptation in school and college training to individual 
interests and needs would have increased this diversity 
of power and effort. 

This extreme theory of individualism in school train- 
ing overlooks the fact that different pupils are each 
endowed with special power to appropriate 
Power of Ap- and assimilate from common elements and 
propriation. ^^q conditions wJiat their individual natures 
need for nnrtttre and growth. There is nothing in the 
nature of the child more individual than this power of 
selection and appropriation. This principle has an 
illustration in the characteristic physical growth of chil- 
dren fed at a common table and subject to like family 



CLASS INSTRUCT/ON. I 35 

conditions. Nor is the force of this illustration lessened 
when the diet is too limited in kinds of food to permit 
any play of taste or appetite except in the quantity of 
food eaten. The individual variations in physical 
development seem to be as great when food is limited 
in kinds as when there are many kinds of food provided. 
The deeper physiological fact is the power of the physi- 
cal organism to appropriate from given elements what 
is needed for individual growth and activity. 

This same principle of individual appropriation and 
assimilation holds in psychical nurture and growth. Just 
as the bodies of children are nourished from 

, , . , , ,. A Parallel. 

common food and drmk, each accordmg to 
its own nature and need, so their souls may be nour- 
ished by common instruction and training, each appro- 
priating according to its individual bent and nature. 
It is here that the law of self-activity has its finest 
illustration. No two pupils get precisely the same 
activity and nurture out of a class exercise. Individ- 
ual interest and inclination are marvelously keen eyed 
and quick in self-nurture. 

It is conceded that too much emphasis has been 
placed in school training on what is common and 
typical in pupils, and that too little attention correction 
has been given to what is characteristic and needed, 
individual. But in correcting this error great care 
should be taken to avoid the other extreme. What is 
needed is not the abandonment of the class system but 
higher skill in teaching pupils in classes, — a skill that 
is sufficiently keen eyed to note individual characteristics 
while training common powers. 

Most of the objections to class instruction urged by 
the advocates of individual teaching are based on poor 



136 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

class work, the pupils being described as inattentive 
and listless, and the exercise as destitute of interest and 
ob-ectionsto P^^^''' ^^ ^^ ^o bc regretted that this is a 
Class In- true picture of too many class exercises, but 
struction. ^^ failure is due to a lack of skill in teach- 
ers. It is not a necessary result of class teaching. 
On the contrary, in a skillful class exercise every pupil 
is alert and active from the beginning to the close. 
The pupil reciting only expresses what the other pupils 
are doing mentally or are critically considering. 

In an ideal class exercise this common activity is 
necessitated by the teacher, and this is an essential ele- 
ideai Class Hicnt in the art of class teaching. Nor is 
Exercise, -j-j^jg skiUful " handHng " of a class possible to 
only a few specially gifted teachers. It is an art that 
every capable teacher may acquire, an art that has 
been acquired by many hundreds of earnest teachers. 
It involves, in addition to the use of right methods, skill 
in arousing the interest and holding the attention of 
pupils ; and this involves such a skillful presentation 
of subject-matter as will necessitate the attention and 
activity of the entire class. The same questions or the 
same topics may be used in class teaching as would be 
used in individual teaching, but in the former the ques- 
tions or topics must be so put before the class as to 
necessitate the attention and thought of every pupil. 
It is not possible to give even the essential elements of 
a skillful class exercise in a brief description here. It 
must suffice to add that class teaching reaches its ideal 
only when all the pupils are attentive and active from 
start to finish. 

A skillful class exercise will necessarily disclose dif- 
ferences in the capacity and attainments of the pupils ; 



CLASS INSTRUCTION. 1 37 

and, if the exercise be one of instruction or drill, these 
individual variations may readily receive needed atten- 
tion. It is true that this adaptation of a class individual 
exercise to individual needs will require on Differences, 
the teacher's part quickness of discernment and tact in 
action, but these are important elements of the teaching 
art. In a sense all the pupils of the class must be 
in the eye of the teacher and each an open book. 
Only right experience in teaching can develop this 
power. As the reading of the printed page involves a 
double action, one of the eye, which takes in words in 
groups and sentences, and the other of the mind, the 
reading of the thought, so skillful class teaching in- 
volves attention in two directions, one \.o the class as 
a unit, the other to the individual pupils. 

Since all teaching is the occasionmg of right activity 
in the learner, it follows that class teaching involves the 
activity of individual pupils and is in a true j,,^^^ ^^ 
sense individual teaching. The only possi- struction 
ble exception is an exercise in which the 
activity of the pupils is automatic and mechanical. 
There is no ground for the assumption that only in- 
struction limited to a single pupil occasions individual 
activity and learning. It is possible for twenty pupils 
in a class to receive each as much training from a com- 
mon course of instruction as would be received were 
each pupil taught the same studies alone ; and this is 
possible, though the instruction of the class may not in 
all its details be so well adapted to individual need as 
would be true in teaching a single pupil, what is loss 
in this direction being more than made good by gains 
in other directions. We are thus led to a consideration 
of the advantages of class teaching. 



38 THE ART OF TEACHING. 



Merits and Advantages of Class Teaching. 

Class teaching has important advantages, and this is 

true whether the exercise be a lesson or a recitation.^ 

In class instruction, whatever be the method, 

Advantages. m • n r- i i i ... 

each pupil is benefited by the participation 
of other pupils. His view is corrected or widened by 
theirs, and from their point of view he gains new in- 
sights and fuller knowledge. Their grasp of what is 
taught quickens his mental activity, and their success 
stimulates him to greater effort. The mental alertness 
of a group of pupils under stimulating instruction is a 
matter of common observation. The same is evident in 
a skillfully conducted drill. A glowing enthusiasm per- 
vades the class. The successful effort of one becomes 
an inspiring example for the others, and all come into 
the helpful spirit of cooperative effort.^ Indeed, the 
pupils in a class exercise often learn from each other as 
much as they learn from the teacher. 

Moreover, the cooperation of pupils in class work is 
Preparation ^n exccllcnt preparation for real life. It 

for Life. begets the feeling of social cooperation, awak- 
ening a desire to do what others are doing, and the 

1 " The class system is really one of the greatest inventions ever made 
in pedagogy. A class recitation is a great means of instruction ; far more 
potent than any device of individual instruction. The ideal of instruction 
is not the private tutor with his single pupil." — Dr. W. T. Harris, Pro- 
ceedings of N. E. A., 1895, P- 407- 

2 The wise teacher finds large advantage in group teaching. The many- 
sided friction is a good thing for the child. Class exercises are a tremen- 
dous impulse in forwarding individual children. Individualism tends to a 
loss of the advantage of the spirit of cooperative effort. Class work reen- 
forces each by the understanding of all others." — Dr. Richard G. Boone, 
Proceedings of N. E. A., 1895, P- 4°7- 



CLASS INSTRUCTION. 



139 



ambition to do well whatever is attempted. The pupil 
learns to measure himself by others, and the stimulus 
to effort is increased by the fact that he is doing like 
work under like conditions. He also loses in good 
degree the fear of criticism, and thus gains the power of 
confident effort in the presence of others. It is help- 
ful to realize early that others also make mistakes and 
come short in effort. It is evident that all this disci- 
pline makes for success in the practical duties of life. 

The advantages of the class system are not disproved 
or met by citing its well-known abuses, such as the 
chaining of pupils of unequal attainments to- 
gether from term to term ; the ignoring of in- ciass sys. 
dividual attainments and needs in class work ; *^'"' 
the gauging of requirements by the standard of the aver- 
age pupil ; the sacrifice of the individual to the demands 
of uniformity and system, etc. These and other abuses 
of the class system certainly need correction, but hap- 
pily this does not require the abandonment of class 
teaching. Here the correction of abuses does not in- 
volve the abolition of uses. What is needed is class teach- 
ing that skillfully meets individual ability and needs. 

It has been asserted (p. 133) that the adoption of the 
plan of teaching pupils in all branches separately as in- 
dividuals would destroy the modern school. , ,. ., , 

-' Individual- 

It is not meant that no sort of a school is ism and the 
possible with individual instruction. It is, of school, 
course, possible to place a few pupils under a teacher 
who directs in a general way their activities, and gives 
to each such personal attention as may be feasible. 
The writer once attended a private school of twelve 
pupils who formed over thirty so-called classes, and he 
alone formed four and, for a ' part of the term, five of 



140 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

these classes. More than half of all the exercises in that 
school were individual, that is, with a single pupil. It 
was not possible for the teacher to do more than " hear " 
lessons recited, or glance at work done and assign more. 
There was Httle time for instruction. It was necessarily 
a poor school, and most of the pupils made very little 
progress. 

There are thousands of rural schools in the United 

States with less than twelve pupils in daily attendance, 

Individual and while few of these schools teach so many 

Instruction bi-^nches as the private school referred to 

in Rural ^ 

Schools. above, the pupils are so unequal in capacity 
and attainment that group instruction is not practicable 
in all lessons. Much of the teaching is necessarily indi- 
vidual, even with the best possible classification. ^ The 
experience of these rural schools shows that the best 
work is done when several pupils can be grouped and 
taught together. The improvement of the rural school 
has been largely effected by a better classification. 

In cities and towns where hundreds of pupils are 
massed in the same building, both imperative economy 

Individual and needed efficiency require the grading of 
^7n ci?'°" ^^ pupils and their instruction in classes. 

Schools. The writer is aware that it is claimed by the 
advocates of individualism as the basis of the school 
that the feasibility of individual teaching even in large 
schools has been demonstrated by actual experiment; 
but there has been no trial of the plan which did not 
play fast and loose with the principle of individualism. 
It is confidently asserted that no real trial of individual 
teaching in large schools has been satisfactory except 

^For a full discussion of this subject see *'TheCountryvSchool Problem" 
by the author, published by the American Book Company, New York. 



CLASS INSTRUCTION. I4I 

to those who were responsible for the experiment. 
Most of the so-called trials have been a mixture of 
individual and class teaching, class teaching being 
simply supplemented by more or less separate individ- 
ual instruction. There is in every elementary school 
a place for individual assistance and work, but the con- 
ditions that make such special individual attention neces- 
sary diminish as pupils pass up in the grades. 

It is true that in an ideal class the pupils are sup- 
posed to be of equal ability and attainments, a condi- 
tion that is found in few, if any, classes. 

' ■' ' Unequal 

Even when pupils are of nearly equal attain- Progress of 
ments at the beginning of a term, they soon ^^p^^s- 
work apart more or less. This unequal progress may be 
due to unequal ability, to varying aptitudes for the given 
study, to differences in physical vigor, to unequal home 
advantages, to absence, etc. This unequal progress ne- 
cessitates reclassifications, and it is just here that some 
of the most serious difficulties in the class system appear, 
it being usually necessary to reclassify pupils without 
increasing the number of classes. 

Fortunately, the necessity of like attainments by the 
pupils in a class varies much with the nature of the 
studies. In the more scientific and logical Degrees of 
studies, such as English grammar, arithmetic. Equality, 
and algebra, low attainments in the more elementary 
topics and processes make the mastery of the more 
advanced very difficult ; but in several of the school 
arts, as reading, speUing, writing, drawing, and language, 
equality of attainment is less important. Experience 
shows that pupils who may be a year apart in skill in 
any one of these arts may be successfully taught to- 
gether. It is possible to make class instruction even 



142 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

under such conditions very helpful to the pupils, much 
more helpful than is possible when a school is broken 
into fragments of classes with little or no training. It 
goes without saying that the more unequal the ability 
and attainments of pupils in a class, the larger must be 
the element of individual attention and the higher the 
teacher's skill. 

It is freely conceded that the grading and classifying 
of pupils even in city schools are beset with serious 

Graded difficulties. Nor are these difficulties fully 
School Prob- met by the frequent reclassification of pupils 
^"^^^ by promoting the more advanced pupils in a 
class, and uniting them with the more backward pupils 
in the next higher class. It is easy to make a strong 
indictment of the graded system as it was formerly 
administered in many cities and towns. The perfection 
and running of the system as such have often so ab- 
sorbed interest that the fact has been overlooked that 
the system is for the pupils, and not the pupils for the 
system. The graded system with its demands for uni- 
formity has often been a Moloch appeased only by the 
sacrifice of the aptitudes, needs, and interests of pupils 
as individuals. But the problems of the graded school 
are receiving most earnest attention, and in the past 
few years encouraging progress has been made in their 
practical solution. It is increasingly seen that the 
graded system is not an end of school administration, 
but only a means to an end, that end the best possible 
education of youth. 



CHAPTER XII. 

TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 

Much that is said in Chapter VIII. on the testing of 
pupils appHes equally to the other teaching processes. 
There is not only a question method of testing, but also 
a question method of instruction, each requiring careful 
study and practice. 

It is helpful to see that in teaching, questions have 
two distinct uses, to wit : instruction and testing, and 
hence that they have two somewhat distinct forms which 
are characterized by the terms teacJiijig ques- Teachin 
tions and test questions, the term teaching and Testing 
being here used in the sense of instruction. 
In instruction the aim of questions is to direct the pupil's 
observations in the study of objects or to guide his think- 
ing in the study of subjects. Whatever the aim the 
questions used in instruction should have all the quali- 
ties essential to good test questions ; that is, they should 
be clear, concise, and definite, and, in addition, they 
should have a proper sequence, always essential in 
instruction, but not so important in testing. The essen- 
tial thing in a test exercise is that the questions test 
what is vital and fundamental, this being specially true 
of written tests. In the oral test or recitation it is also 
important that the questions or topics present a sys- 
tematic unfolding of the subject, as previously shown 

143 



144 ^^^ ^^T OF TEACHING. 

(p. 107). The recitation thus conducted serves a double 
purpose, a testing and also a clarifying of the pupil's 
knowledge. In instruction this orderly sequence is not 
only important, but essential. 

It is not, however, important for our present purpose 
to make special note of the distinction between instruc- 
tion questions and test questions, or even between les- 
sons and recitations. The difficulties involved in the 
Distribution tcachiug of pupils in classes lie more in the 
of Questions, distributzoji of the questions or topics than in 
the questions or topics themselves. Indeed, the ques- 
tions or topics to be used in teaching a subject have 
little reference to the number of pupils taught. They are 
practically the same whether there be one or many pupils. 
The essential thing in class teaching is the skillful des- 
ignation of the pupils who successively lead in the study 
of an object or subject. As thus stated this may seem 
a very simple, and, possibly, an unimportant matter, but 
just here is the cause of the failure of many class exer- 
cises. In successful class teaching the pupils who recite 
are so designated as to necessitate the tindivided attention 
of the entire class^ the mental activity of every pupil'. 
Whether the exercise be a lesson or a recitation, it must 
be so conducted as to secure these results. 

Methods of Calling on Pupils. 

There are three quite distinct methods of calling on 

pupils to respond to questions or topics in a class exer- 

Three cisc. In the first, called the consecutive 

Methods, method, the pupils recite in consecutive order 

or '' by turn " ; in the second, called the promiscuous 

method, the pupils who recite are designated promiscu- 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 1 45 

ously by the teacher ; and in the third, called the simtd- 
tancous or concert method, the pupils recite simultane- 
ously or "in concert." Let us study each of these 
methods to learn its advantages and defects, and also its 
proper use in class work. It will not be necessary in 
this study to limit the method under consideration to a 
given teaching process or to a given class exercise. 
Practically the principles to be observed in calling on 
pupils in a recitation will apply with slight modification 
to a lesson, and vice versa} 

I. The Consecutive Method. 

This is probably the earliest and most widely used of 
the methods named. It is still the prevailing method in 
many schools. Nor is this early and wide its 

use of the method wholly without reason. Advantages. 
It has several obvious advantages which commend it to 
the favor of teachers, and especially to those who have 
never carefully considered its defects. 

The first of these advantages noted is rapidity. The 
reasons are obvious. The special designation of the 
pupils to recite takes some time and there is 

,,..., , Rapidity. 

more or less hesitation in the response ; but 
when pupils recite in turn little time is lost. The pupils 
know when they are to recite and are ready to respond 
promptly. The time to recite is a certainty and the 
pupils are alert. Experience shows that more questions 
can be asked and answered in a given time by the con- 
secutive method than is possible when the pupils to 
recite are designated by the teacher. 

1 In pages 145-151 the author has made free use of his treatment of 
the same subject in the " Elements of Pedagogy." 

ART OF TEACHING — lO 



146 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

Another advantage of the method is the fact that it 
is easy for the teacher. He is reheved of the labor in- 
Easy for volved in selecting and designating the pupils 
Teacher, ^q rccitc ; and, in test exercises, his labor is 
thus reduced to asking questions or assigning topics 
and then determining the correctness of the pupils' 
answers or responses. The recitation may proceed as 
regularly and about as mechanically as clock-work. 
The same is true in drill exercises. 

Another advantage of the turn method is the fact that 
all the pupils have an opportunity of reciting. The pupils 
All have o Tcspoud consccutivcly and no one is omitted, 
portunity to This is an important advantage in class work 
and especially in recitations that test the 
results of study. Few pupils will thoroughly prepare 
lessons if there is even a probability that they will not 
be called on to recite. The writer has known classes 
in which it often happened that most of the pupils did 
not have an opportunity to recite for several successive 
days. The result was a loss of interest on the part of 
the omitted pupils and a resulting neglect of study. 
The most faithful study is secured when every recitation 
tests the preparation of every pupil in the class. 

The foregoing advantages of the consecutive method 
are more than offset by its failure to necessitate close and 
.J universal attention. The pupil reciting and 

Necessitate possibly the ouc who has the next '* turn " 
must give attention, but the other pupils are 
not obliged to do so. As soon as a pupil has recited, he 
can go a-fishing mentally until his turn comes again. It 
is true that a skillful teacher may so interest his class in 
the lesson as to secure general attention, but this is not 
a result of the turn method. Universal attention is 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 1 47 

secured not in consequence of the method but in spite 
of it. The failure of the method to secure close atten- 
tion results in its failure to occasion the continued men- 
tal activity of all the pupils, the ideal of a skillful class 
exercise. Just to the extent that a class exercise fails 
to occasion the universal activity of the class, just to 
that extent it fails to meet the needs of the pupils. 
A true class exercise is a continued mental gymnastic 
to all the pupils. 

Another weakness of the consecutive method, as 
generally used, is the fact that it permits a partial 
preparation of the lesson, a weakness that Partial 
appears most commonly in book lessons, but Preparation. 
it may exist in other lessons. The pupils near the foot 
of the class are tempted to neglect the part of the lesson 
which is to be recited by the pupils near the head, and 
vice versa. In the old-time school the pupils read in 
turn one "verse" each, and it was a common practice 
for the pupils to count the verses and then study only 
the verse which they would read. This practice still 
exists not only in schools, but even in some colleges 
which use the turn method. As a rule, pupils will 
prepare most faithfully that portion of the lesson which 
they expect to recite, and the turn method may permit 
this expectation. It is true that this partial preparation 
may be obviated by the teacher's not following the order 
of the text-book, but this may interfere with the proper 
unfolding of the subject. 

This difficulty may, however, be effectively remedied 
by having the reciting begin from day to day at different 
points in the class. If the exercise begins with 
the fifth pupil one day, the tenth pupil the next 
day, the third pupil the next day, and so on, no pupil 



148 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

can even guess, when preparing a lesson, what portion 
of it will fall to him to recite, and so he is safe only 
when he has prepared the entire lesson. It is surprising 
that teachers who use the turn method have not more 
generally seen the efficiency of this simple device in 
preventing the partial preparation of lessons. The 
device works best when all the pupils of a class recite 
daily. 

Another weakness of the consecutive method is the 
fact that it prevents the most tJioiviigJi testing of a class, 
Thorough a weakness that more specially appears in 
Testing, recitations. The tests which by turn fall to 
the pupils successively may not be those which would 
best disclose their knowledge of the subject. The 
revolving exercise may bring to an idle pupil the only 
question or topic which he can recite, and he may thus 
be tempted to trust to luck next time, the idle being as 
a class very easily tempted in this direction. The highest 
efficiency of a recitation depends largely on a skillful 
distribution of its tests. 



2. The Promiscuous Method. 

A study of the promiscuous method of calHng on pupils 
in class exercises shows that its merits and defects are 
respectively the inverse of those of the consecutive 
method. It is weak where the consecutive method 
is strong, and strong where the consecutive method is 
weak. Its great merit is the fact that it sectires 

Great Merit. 

and holds the attention of all the pupils in a 
class. It is true that this result depends somewhat on 
the skill of the teacher, but the method both permits 
and favors the highest success. 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 149 

When skillfully used, the method necessitates close 
and universal attention. When a question or topic is 
announced, every pupil in the class is obliged 
to be on the alert as he may be designated 
to respond. He must also give close attention to the 
pupil reciting, since at any moment he may be called 
upon to correct an error, supply an omission, or take 
up and complete the recitation. The frequent calling 
on pupils to complete the recitation of another, taking 
it up precisely at the right point, is a most effective 
device for necessitating close attention and the continued 
mental activity of all the pupils. This may be readily 
done in exercises in arithmetic, particularly in the oral 
solution of mental problems, in reading, history, phys- 
iology, and other branches. The writer has witnessed 
many a class exercise which easily held the attention of 
all the pupils, obliging every one to do mentally the 
work of the pupils reciting. 

It is easy to see that this advantage of the promiscu- 
ous method may be wholly lost by designating the pupil 
to recite before amioiincing the qicestiou or Mistake in 
topic, a practice still too common in schools "s<^- 
and colleges. It ought to be evident that the calling on 
the pupil before the topic is announced relieves all the 
other pupils in the class from the necessity of giving 
it attention, while the announcing of the topic first 
brings it home to every pupil. Every one must be 
ready to take it and, to make this result certain, there 
should not be even a prior glance at the pupil to be called 
on to respond. 

A class exercise may thus be made a fine mental drill, 
an excellent mental gymnastic. Suppose, for example, 
that a class in arithmetic, containing say twenty pupils, 



150 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

solves twenty problems in an exercise. If the exer- 
cise is so conducted that each pupil solves but one 

Mental problem, the exercise will necessitate but 
Gymnastic, fiveiity mental solutions. If the exercise is 
so conducted as to oblige each pupil in the class to solve 
mentally all of the twenty problems, it will necessitate 
fo7ir hundred mental solutions. The difference in the 
training value of the two exercises is evident. It is true 
that the making of a class exercise such as mental drill 
requires high skill ; but this, let us repeat, is a necessary 
attainment in all successful teaching. 

The promiscuous method also permits a proper distri- 
bution of questions or topics. These can be thrown just 
where they will prove the most effective and 

Proper Dis- ■' ^ 

tribution of do the most good. The idle pupil may be 
Questions, gjygj^ Opportunity to show the consequences 
of his idleness ; the pupil who was assisted yesterday 
may be called on to recite in review ; any lack of atten- 
tion may be instantly corrected, etc. Indeed, the lesson 
may be so distributed as not only to keep all pupils alert 
and active, but also to give each needed opportunity to 
participate in the exercise, a very important matter. 

But while the promiscuous method permits the best 

possible distribution of class work, it does not necessi- 

Fitting ^^^^ ^y\^h. distribution. This depends on the 

Questions fidelity and skill of the teacher. An intelli- 

"p» s ggj^i- teacher usually knows in advance the 

pupils who can answer his questions, and this makes 

possible the fitting of pupils to questions or questions 

to pupils. The teacher may be assisted in this fitting 

process by having the pupils who can answer raise the 

hand. There need be very few failures in a class when 

this bad device is used. In many classes the hand- 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 151 

raisers do nearly all the class work to the detriment of 
the other pupils. Dull pupils may also be purposely 
omitted, this being most likely to occur when visitors 
are present, as in public examinations. The tempta- 
tion on such occasions to call only on the brightest 
pupils is too strong for many weak teachers to resist, 
and for this reason the public exercises in schools are 
sometimes worse than shams. Nor is this sham work 
limited to class exercises. It is too common in school 
exhibits. 

Moreover, the unskillful distribution of class work is 
often due to habit. Many teachers unconsciously assign 
most of the reciting to a few pupils, almost ^^^ ^^j 
wholly omitting the others, often the very Partici- 
pupils who most need to participate in class pa*»°"- 
work. Easy teachers are quite apt to assign the more 
difficult questions or topics to the brighter pupils, and 
the easier to the backward. On the contrary, a severe 
teacher is Hable to fall into the opposite habit of over- 
whelming the dull and backward with the difficulties of 
the lesson and most of the reciting. 

Enough has been said to show that it requires no 
small degree of skill to conduct a class exercise in such 
a manner as to secure the close attention of skiii 
pupils and at the same time to distribute Needed, 
class work properly. While these necessary results can 
be attained only by insight and skill, teachers may be 
greatly assisted by the use of proper devices. Indeed, 
the need of such assistance has been so widely felt that 
various devices have been invented for that purpose. 

One of these is to write the name or number of each 
pupil in the class on a small card, as many cards being 
used as there are pupils. At each exercise, the cards 



152 



THE ART OF TEACflTNG. 



are mixed and dropped in a box, or put in a pile on the 

teacher's table. The pupils to recite are selected by 

takinsf cards from the box or pile. The writer 

Devices. ^ ^ 

obtained this device from Horace Mann. It 
works very well in advanced classes with long recita- 
tions, provided the teacher frequently takes a card from 
those already used, thus holding the attention of those 
who have recited. It is, however, a poor device for 
use in class instruction in elementary schools. 



Brown 



Sh'inn C 




Fell 



Another device is to put the names or numbers of 
the pupils in the class on one card, arranging the same 
Geometrical 1^ the form of somc geometrical figure, as 

Figure. shown in the diagram above. This, as is 
seen, will permit the calHng of the names or numbers 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 153 

on successive days in dijfcrcnt orders. The writer devised 
and used this plan years ago with satisfaction. It leaves 
the teacher free to sit or stand during the exercise, and 
to occupy different positions in the room. When the 
exercise closes, the teacher knows what pupils, if any, 
have been omitted ; and, by frequently calling on pupils 
zvithoiit reference to the card, the attention of the entire 
class is easily held. In large classes numbers are more 
convenient than names. 

In later practice in college and as an examiner of 
teachers, the writer has been able to £all numbers pro- 
miscuously without the use of a card ; as 3, caiiing by 

6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc.; I, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, Numbers. 

etc.; 2, 5, 8, II, 14, 17, 20, etc. By frequently calling 
numbers already called undivided attention is easily held. 
Since the consecutive and promiscuous methods sup- 
plement each other, the easiest plan of avoiding their 
respective defects is to combine them. This union of 
may Be done by permitting pupils to recite Methods, 
by turn except when the teacher designates another 
pupil. If these exceptions are sufficiently frequent, the 
attention of the class may be as universally held as 
by the promiscuous method alone. The most skillful 
teacher of oral spelling that we have ever known, com- 
bined these methods. The words passed rapidly down 
her class except when she ''threw" words pronounced 
to other pupils, and this was done so frequently and 
skillfully that no pupil felt safe in taking his eyes from 
the teacher. When the exercise closed, every pupil had 
recited, and the poor spellers and the Kstless had re- 
ceived special attention. This plan may be used in all 
oral drills, and a little practice will enable any skillful 
teacher to use it with success. 



154 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

3. The Simultaneous Method. 

The weakness of the simultaneous, or concert, method 
as a test (p. 100) is also manifest when it is used in a 
Weakness drill excrcisc or in class instruction. The 
of Method, responses of the class may be led by a few 
pupils, even by one pupil, and the others may mechan- 
ically follow ; and all this may be done in such a way 
as to make it difficult to detect either the leadership or 
the following, as shown in the chorus test in singing on 
page loi. Teachers are not only deceived respecting 
the knowledge and skill of their pupils, but, what is 
possibly worse, they sadly overestimate their own suc- 
cess in class teaching. They accept the confident and 
often glib responses of their classes in concert as evi- 
dence that the individual pupils actually know what 
they are saying together. How often are teachers who 
use the concert method surprised at the disclosures of 
ignorance made by written tests or by the oral testing 
of individual pupils. It was this disclosure that exploded 
the once famous Lancaster system of teaching. 

It is not what the teacher says or does in a class exer- 
cise that tells, but what the pupils learn ; and pupils can 

Limited Icam Only by their own activity (p. 33), As 
Use. already noted, the concert response may some- 
times be used with good results in class exercises. It 
may be occasionally employed to awaken interest and 
arouse attention ; also to fix a truth, and especially its 
exact statement, in the memory. It may be used in 
drills in singing, and to a limited extent in reading. 
When a sentence is clearly understood, there may some- 
times be an advantage in having a class give vocal ex- 
pression to the thought in concert. It is sometimes 
possible to secure a free and clear expression of a 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 155 

thought, not otherwise easily secured from some of the 
pupils. The voices of other pupils not only guide and 
support the timid and hesitating, but, what is more im- 
portant, they are thus inspired with confidence, and can 
do their best, as in the singing of difficult music. But 
the concert exercise should be very sparingly used even 
in reading, and it should always be supplemented by the 
individual drill or test. 

But the concert method has been so widely and sadly 
abused in American schools that it seems wise to dis- 
countenance its use altogether. The writer Abuse of 
has visited primary schools in which the les- Method, 
sons in reading and spelling, tables of numbers, of 
weights and measures, etc., were recited not only in 
concert, but in sing-song, quasi-musical tones, distress- 
ing to the ear and stupefying to the mind. There is no 
speedier way for reducing a bright child to stupidity 
than a vigorous use of humdrum concert drills. A few 
years ago a friend who had musical gifts visited the 
primary schools in one of the largest cities in the coun- 
try, and indicated the tones used in different concert 
exercises by a semi-musical notation ! It is a pleasure 
to add that the stupid concert drill is disappearing from 
American schools. The change in this direction in the 
last twenty years is very gratifying. 

It seems unnecessary to add that much concert recit- 
ing injures the voice, both for speaking and singing. 
The resulting "primary tone," as it has been ..The Pru 
called, is still often heard in the pulpit and '"^''y Tone." 
at the bar, and much of the drilHng in reading in the 
upper grades of school aims to overcome and remove 
the bad habits acquired in the lower. If concert exer- 
cises are ever employed, special pains should be taken 



156 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

to keep the tones natural and pleasant. The boisterous, 
discordant yelling, which is encouraged in too many 
schools as singing, is injurious to the singing voice, 
and subversive of musical taste. There should be in- 
creasing attention given in elementary schools to the 
quality of children's voices both in reading and singing. 



It seems proper to add that the teaching of pupils in 
classes is an art of the highest practical importance in 
Class Teach- school work, and it should receive special 
ing an Art. attention in all courses of normal training. 
It is not enough that young teachers learn the art of 
developing or presenting subjects. They must also 
learn the art of distributing subjects and work in such 
a manner as to meet the conditions of successful class 
teaching. The class exercises in the normal school 
should be fit models for the young teacher to study, if 
not to copy. It is one thing to talk to a school or 
class, but it is another thing to teach a school or class. 

The writer has witnessed class instruction in several 
normal institutes in the west in which not one fifth of 

Class the pupils, and these teachers, made any 
"^^No^mi/" response to questions, even when permitted 
Institutes, to auswcr iu concert, for the obvious 
reason that most of them were not able to give intelli- 
gent answers. In several instances text-book lessons 
had been assigned for study, and the attempt was made 
to give the exercise the form of a recitation, but the 
result was a nondescript exercise in which several things 
were attempted and nothing done well. Nor were the 
instructors wholly without excuse, for the conditions 
were against them. The teachers in the institute were 
too crowded with work and their attention too much 



TEACHING PUPILS IN CLASSES. 157 

dissipated by the social life surrounding them to prepare 
the lessons assigned. Recitations under such conditions 
are not practicable, and, so far as teachers under training 
accept this poor class teaching as a model and repeat it 
in the schools, such class work is a positive harm. We 
are fully satisfied that teaching in the schools Bad 
is lowered in efficiency by the bad examples influence, 
of class work often found in teachers' institutes, and so- 
called normal classes. It would be far better for the 
instructor to develop the subjects taught without any 
reference to book study, and then by reproductions and 
reviews fix what is fundamental and important in the 
memory (p. 113); and in these genuine lessons every 
member of the institute can be reached and held to close 
attention and active work. The normal institute should 
never be lowered to the task of assisting poor scholars to 
pass examinations for a teacher's certificate.^ 

1 The attempt to make a teachers' institute a school for academic in- 
struction is one extreme in institute management, and the making an 
institute a place of amusement and social enjoyment with " inspiration " 
speeches is another extreme. As the writer recently stepped before a 
teachers' institute to give his second lesson, the young country superinten- 
dent whispered to him, " Work in a story or a joke to make them laugh. 
Teachers like a good laugh." Before the second day closed this superin- 
tendent found that his teachers could be deeply interested in thoughtful, 
clean-cut instruction, dealing practically and helpfully with their duties 
as teachers. The "joke" business possesses too many institutes. The 
following outHne of a performance on the " Teaching of Arithmetic," 
recently heard in an institute, is not an extravagant caricature : 

Condemn with ridicule prevailing methods and results. Tell a funny 
story to get up interest. Dip into the " Philosophy of Number." Wake 
up audience with a laugh-raising joke. Try the pathetic ; recite several 
stanzas of " Little Boy Blue." Touch on teachers' salaries (always practi- 
cal arithmetic !). Tell how Eugene Field "got a raise" in his salary. 
Announce continuance of arithmetic in next lesson. Work up a perora- 
tion on — anything, ending with a side-splitting joke. Leave platform 
slowly amid applause. 



158 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

This poor class teaching is seen in abundance in the 
schools, not only in elementary schools but also in high 
Poor Class schools and colleges. The writer has seen 
Teaching, scorcs of Icssons givcn to a room full of pupils 
responding in concert, in which only a few of the bright- 
est pupils were really following the leader. The other 
pupils were mechanically following the bright pupils, 
repeating after them, so far as they recited at all. It 
was instruction fired at a class, so far as it had an aim, 
but was not class instruction. Nor is this faulty class 
work to be charged wholly to the '* grade teachers," but 
superintendents taking the classes from their teachers 
sometimes make even a worse botch of class handUng. 
There are many experienced teachers who cannot 
teach a class with success. They can develop and pre-' 
sent subjects, it may be, but they cannot put these sub- 
jects properly before pupils in a class. Our observations 
raise the fear that in many schools effective class teach- 
ing is a " lost art," if it were ever acquired. There is 
certainly much very poor class work in schools and also 
in colleges. 

It is not claimed that all school exercises should con- 
form to the standards set up in preceding pages. There 
Inspiration ^rc occasious in every school when inspira- 
Exercises. ^^qj^ jg morc important than instruction ; when 
a vital need of pupils is to get at least a ghmpse of fields 
of knowledge too remote to be definitely surveyed and 
studied. The interest kindled by such gUmpses is car- 
ried into exercises which aim at more definite results, 
and the entire mental fife of the school may be thus 
quickened. Nor is it urged that personal influence and 
power may be superseded by skill in teaching processes. 
In all school work the personality of the teacher is a 



TEACHING PUPILS IM CLASSES. I 59 

vital factor. But there is no disharmony between per- 
sonal power and teaching skill. The one does not exclude 
the other. On the contrary, both are essential to the 
highest success in teaching. The greater the personal 
resources of the teacher the better, but they cannot 
remove the necessity of skill in teaching processes. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WRITTEN EXERCISES. 

One of the marked changes in school training in the 
past forty years is the wide use of the pencil and pen by 
pupils. This change has occurred not only in the higher 
grades of school, but increasingly in elementary schools. 
Writing in some form now accompanies and largely 
enters into school training in reading, spelling, language, 
and nearly all other branches. 

The slate and pencil have long been used for the solu- 
tion of examples and problems in arithmetic and alge- 

Pen and bra, and later the slate and pencil have been 

Pencil. supplemented by the blackboard and crayon, 
increasingly in class exercises. The pen was early used 
in exercises in writing and the pencil in drawing. The 
memory of teachers runs not back of the practice of 
learning to write by writing and to draw by drawing. 

The movement for a wider use of pen and pencil in 

school work began in the substitution of written for oral 

_i^- Written tcsts, this being soon followed by the use of 

Tests. ^^Q written method of teaching speUing. The 
wide use of written tests was due to their obvious advan- 
tage in determining the attainments of pupils in large 
classes, especially their knowledge or rather its formal 
statement ; and also to the assumed importance of some 
uniform testing as a basis for the classification of pupils. 
Written examinations as a basis for the promotion and 

i6o 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. l6l 

classification of pupils soon became the almost universal 
practice in graded schools. This led to written methods 
of preparing and reciting lessons, especially in large 
classes, and about the only branch in which it was not 
used was vocal music, and in some schools there were 
written examinations in music. It has been increasingly 
assumed in teaching that American children are dumb. 

This general use of the pen and pencil in elementary 
schools naturally resulted in the earlier teaching of writ- 
ing. At first print was used in the lower Early writ- 
grades, but in time this was generally dis- »"&• 
placed by the use of script from the very beginning. 
The old-time school assumed that young children have 
not the physical ability to learn to write a *' fine hand," 
and so the child's first practice was in making ** pot- 
hooks," these leading to a coarse round hand. It took 
several school terms to reach an attempt to write an 
ordinary hand. It was, however, found by trial that 
even first-year pupils can be trained to write script of 
ordinary size from the first (What cannot young children 
be trained to do.?), and so the more ''progressive" 
schools put infants to writing 'Mike men and women," 
and other schools took up the new practice. The skill 
in writing thus early acquired was soon utilized in many 
ways in primary instruction, and even formal written 
exercises were imposed upon pupils in the very lowest 
grades. 

It is a most interesting fact that physiological research 
in the department of child study has come to the sup- 
port of the pothook assumption of the old- t. k 

•"• 1 estimony of 

tmie school ; and so it appears that on this Physiology, 
point the old-time teachers were wiser in their day and 
generation than the later reformers of primary instruc- 

ART OF TE.\CHING — 1 1 



1 62 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

tion. Dr. G. Stanley Hall claims to have demonstrated 
that the ancillary muscles of the hand and fingers used 
in writing are not sufficiently developed in young chil- 
dren for writing a fine hand, or for fine needlework, and 
that their nervous systems are injured by too fine work 
in the kindergarten and primary school. 

Then here comes the so-called ''philosophy " of ver- 
tical writing with strong condemnation of the early use 

Vertical of the slaut scHpt, which has so long been 
>- Writing. the joy of '* up-to-datc " primary tcachers. It 
is surprising what evils are now charged to slant writing 
in the schools and what reliefs are promised from the 
substitution of vertical writing. All this raises the sus- 
picion that the evils of the " writing habit " may not be 
altogether due to the slant of the letters, and it is not at 
all certain that vertical writing will afford the desired 
relief. It is more probable that these evils are due to 
too early and too much writing in elementary schools. 

This brings us face to face with what is believed to 
be a serious evil in the modern school, to wit : an exces- 

Excessive stvc tisc of the pcn and pencil, especially in 

p^rand lower elementary schools. It is the opinion 



\ 



Pencil. of many thoughtful observers that young 
pupils, especially in the graded schools in cities, spend 
too much time on written work. On this point intelligent 
teachers ought not to need the aid of experts in child 
physiology to see that the amount of pen and pencil 
work done by their young pupils is a serious tax on the 
nervous system, and that their cramped and unnatural 
positions when doing such work interfere with the free 
action of the lungs and other vital organs. In the reg- 
ular writing and drawing lessons some attention is usu- 
ally given to the posture of pupils ; but in the written 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. 1 63 

preparation of lessons pupils are left free to follow their 
inclinations, and all this is much worse in the written work 
at home, which is often done without sufficient light, sit- 
ting on high chairs or low stools, and often without the 
use of a table. The evils resulting from these unfavor- 
able conditions are greatly aggravated by the time given 
to such work. 

A competent observer need not remain long in some 
of our primary schools, especially in the afternoon, to 
note the " fidgety " condition of the pupils injury to 
preparing written work, and many thought- Pupils. -^ 
ful parents are watching with solicitude the home work 
of their children who sometimes act as if they would " fly 
to pieces," as a nervous girl once expressed her feel- 
ing. The increasing nervousness of school children is a 
matter of common observation, though few, it may be, 
suspect that the chief cause is an excessive amount of 
written work. 

There is certainly no justification for the growing 
practice of requiring nearly all lessons to be prepared 
in writing, and the only known reason for p^.^ ^^.^^ 
this practice is the foolish desire of elemen- Lessons in ^ 
tary teachers to imitate university methods. "*'"^* 
The amount of written work required of young pupils 
in some schools would tax the nervous energy and en- 
durance of adults. Pupils are required to write out 
(often in set forms) the analysis of mental problems in 
arithmetic and sentences in grammar, rules and defini- 
tions in both branches, these being often copied from 
the blackboard, tabulated and outlined descriptions in 
geography, physiology, history, etc., and all this in addi- 
tion to language exercises, written work in arithmetic 
and algebra, spelling, writing, drawing, etc. 



1 64 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

It is just now the fad in certain schools to require 
young pupils to prepare in writing at home lessons in 
Home Les- primary geography, nature study, etc., and 

sons. not a few parents are obliged to assist their 
children in this "original" work.^ Teachers, as well as 
pupils, have been obliged to spend hours in hunting for 
the facts for assigned written lessons, — assigned, as it 
may be, by the superintendent or principal, and this not 
only in high schools or upper grammar grades, but also 
in lower grades. The exercises thus prepared may be 
read in class or handed to the teacher to be glanced 
over and ''marked," then forgotten, an instance in 
which the chase is deemed worth more than the game. 

There is one other use of written work that needs 
only to be mentioned to be condemned. We refer to 
Keeping the assigning of pencil and pen work, to keep 
Pupils Busy. p2ipils busy, 3. practice less common, it is 
hoped, than it was a few years ago. It is, of course, 
admitted that the keeping of pupils busy is an important 
condition in the easy government of a school, but no com- 
petent teacher is obliged to impose work for this special 
purpose. There is an abundance of helpful and profitable 
employment for pupils in school, and the day may be filled 
with a round of exercises, each affording pleasurable ac- 
tivity and rehef . There is no necessity in a good school 
for the imposition of mechanical tasks to keep pupils busy. 

1 A friend of the writer recently assisted his son in preparing a lesson on 
the Hudson River valley, a subject on which the young lad unaided could 
obtain very little information. The father was well acquainted with the 
valley, and the next morning he started his son to school with what he was 
sure would pass as an unusually good exercise. The little fellow returned 
at noon broken-hearted, exclaiming: "The teacher said it would not do. 
/ had no arithmetic in it ! I ought to have ratioed the Hudson and Missis- 
sippi valleys and got the percentage ! " 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. 1 65 

We are now obliged to consider the question of 
written work in school at closer quarters ; and it may 
be first asserted positively that the total Amount of 
amount of pencil and pen work required of written 
first year pupils daily (chiefly pencil and 
crayon) should not exceed sixty minutes in four periods ; 
of second year pupils, eighty minutes in four periods ; of 
third and fourth year pupils, ninety minutes in four peri- 
ods ; of fifth and sixth year pupils, two hours in say 
three or four periods ; and of pupils in upper grades, 
two or three hours daily, the amount of written work 
increasing as pupils pass up in the grades. These may 
be accepted as the maximum requirements for written 
work. Of course much will depend on the character 
of the written exercises. More time can properly be 
given to free movements in drawing or the solution of 
examples in arithmetic than to close pen work. The 
school program should be so arranged that each written 
exercise is followed by recess or by an exercise that 
does not tax the muscles of the fingers. ^ A good pro- 
gram provides for frequent changes in kinds of activity. 

The amount of written work required of pupils in 
a given branch should have intelHgent reference to 
the amount of such work required in other Too much 
branches. And here is a practical difficulty written 

1 . . -I 1 .. -I , ;, Work. 

m what IS known as the " departmental 
system of teaching. The teacher who devotes his entire 
time to the teaching of one branch comes naturally to 
feel that it is tJie branch in the course, and as such has 
superior claims to the time and effort of pupils. So 
lessons are assigned with little reference to the demands 
of other teachers, and, as a result, pupils are overtaxed. 

1 White's " School Management," pp. 86-93. 



1 66 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Recent investigations in several schools have disclosed 
the fact that pupils were assigned home study by three 

investiga- ^nd four different teachers, and that the 
tions. aggregate of the work thus assigned was 
twice what most of the pupils could do well in a reason- 
able time for home study. Not a few high schools that 
have only one daily session, this broken by a short lunch 
recess, provide little or no time in school hours for 
study, and so all lessons must be prepared at home. 
Much of the written work made a part of such prepara- 
tion is necessarily done under very unfavorable condi- 

Q.,„»r,„-cJo,, tions. It is evident that the home work of 

oupervision 

of Home pupils nccds morc careful supervision. It is 
certainly not sufficient to turn pupils loose 
into their homes to do school work there as best they 
may. When the pupils in a class are taught by several 
teachers, not only the written work but all other study 
required by each teacher should have reference to the 
requirements of the other teachers. The total written 
work assigned by all the teachers should be kept within 
the total nervous energy usable in such work. 

The writer is aware that teachers, and sometimes 
principals and superintendents, often resent any intima- 
overtasking tiou that their pupils are in any respect over- 

of Pupils, taxed, but no competent physician, who knows 
the physical condition of a large minority (if not a 
majority) of the pupils in our grammar and high schools, 
has any doubt as to the possibility of easily overtaxing 
their disposable nervous energy. It is the weak minority 
of pupils in our schools (if a minority), whose health 
needs to be the special concern of teachers and school 
supervisors. The strong will usually take care of them- 
selves. 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. 167 

111 school training special pains should be taken to 
provide such a variety of work as will afford needed 
changes of activity. The kind of work done variety of 
in one exercise should afford relief to the work, 
powers taxed in another, and the day's round of work 
should call into play the various activities of mind and 
body, and each in due degree. True methods of teach- 
ing make this change of activity possible and thus 
secure the best training, as well as the conserving of 
physical health. The old-time routine of book study 
with little manual activity has been properly condemned 
as an overtasking of the mind in one kind of activity, 
but there seems to be danger of going to another extreme, 
and overtasking the nervous system by too early and 
too continuous manual activity, especially digital activity. 

Enough has been said to show the necessity of great 
care in the use of written work in instruction and drill 
in the lower grades of school. It is true that orai Expres- 
an important end of these lessons is to train s*°"- 
pupils in the clear expression of what they know (p. 30), 
but oral expression is first in time and first in importance. 
It is much more important that young pupils be able to 
tell well what they know than that they be able to write 
it ; and besides the first and necessary step in training in 
written expression is facility in oral expression (p. 222). 
During the first four or five years of school training the 
emphasis should be placed strongly on oral expression. 

The use of written work in teaching the several 
branches will receive due attention in later chapters, 
and so it must suffice here to indicate in a gen- Feasible 
eral way what is desirable and feasible. In written 
number exercises there is a place almost from 
the first for the use of figures and written processes, but it 



1 68 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

is clearly a mistake to require young pupils to write out in 
words the solution of problems. Allusion has been made 
to the bad English prevalent in the written solution 
of mental problems in school exhibits. Such solutions 
are not good drills in written language, and they are 
not needed in acquiring skill in the solution of problems. 
The oral solution is in every way preferable as has been 
abundantly shown in the teaching of mental arithmetic. 
All that is needed to secure desired results is skill on the 
part of teachers in conducting oral exercises. 

The writing of the words in drills in spelling is almost 

essential to accuracy in the practical use of spelling in 

writing. But it does not follow that the 

Spelling. . . Ill 1 11 

exercises m spelling should be wholly writ- 
ten. Experiments seem to indicate that accuracy in 
spelling is best attained when the eye, the ear, the hand, 
and the vocal motors are conjoined in spelHng drills. 
Besides, proper oral spelling is an aid in acquiring the 
accurate and facile pronunciation of words. The oral 
drills in spelUng with syllabic pronunciation in the old- 
time school unquestionably assisted the pupils, not only 
in spelling, but also in acquiring the art of reading, so far 
at least as the caUing of words at sight is reading. There 
is clearly a proper union of oral and written spelling in 
elementary schools. 

In early lessons on plants and animals, geography, 
etc., there is a place for more or less written work, but 
Reproduc- carc should be taken to keep such work 
tive Lessons, within propcr limits. There should be oral 
responses in developing or presenting lessons, and the 
essential facts taught should be reproduced by the pupils 
orally (p. 112). This oral training is very important 
when pupils are not dumb. Now and then a lesson may 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. 1 69 

finally be reproduced in writing, but when this is at- 
tempted most careful preparation should be made. The 
pupils must be able to tell what they have learned ; 
all new words should be written on the blackboard, and 
care should be taken in the use of capitals, etc. The 
written reproduction of lessons by young pupils should 
be made not merely a test of knowledge, but also a 
training in its written expression. If care is careiess 
not taken in these written exercises, careless Written 
habits will be formed, and what is striven for 
in the regular language exercises will be largely lost. 
An inspection of the ordinary written work of pupils in 
the schoolroom, not that specially prepared for the pur- 
pose or for a school exhibit, will show that this written 
work is not superior training in language. Pupils usu- 
ally aim at only one thing at a time ; and their aim in a 
written exercise should be expression, including the cor- 
rect use of written forms. What is needed in written 
work is less quantity and higher quality. 

Written Tests. 

We have had occasion in previous chapters to con- 
sider the nature and function of the recitation as a test 
exercise and to note the more obvious limitations of the 
written test. It now remains to consider more fully the 
use of the written test in recitations, a use that may 
properly increase as we ascend in the grades. 

The written test has long been more or less used in 
recitations in spelling, arithmetic, and algebra, and more 
recently in recitations in language and other use of writ- 
branches, especially in reviews. In classes *^" Tests, 
sufficiently advanced it may be used in the final repro- 



170 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

duction of subjects taught, also at the completion of 
each of the several sub-divisions of branches of study, 
and at the completion of each branch when the tests 
used need to be more incisive than comprehensive. 
Such recurring tests, when used as aids to teaching and 
study, have special advantages. They give pupils a 
tangible measure of their attainments and progress, thus 
stimulating them to sustained effort. They are also help- 
ful to teachers, often disclosing defects in teaching not 
shown by the ordinary recitation, this being specially true 
when the questions used are not prepared by the teacher. 
These advantages are common to oral and written 
tests when both are equally searching, but the written 
test has several advantages over the oral test, 

Advantages "^ 

of Written particularly in larger classes. The written 
'^"*^' test is more impartial than the oral, since it 
gives all pupils the same tests and an equal opportunity 
to meet them ; it discloses more reliably the comparative 
progress of the different pupils, information of value to 
the teacher ; it reveals more clearly defects in teaching 
and study, thus assisting in their correction ; it empha- 
sizes more strongly the importance of fullness and 
accuracy in the expression of knowledge ; and it reveals 
more fully than separate language exercises the pupil's 
ability to write correctly when his attention is more 
specially directed to the thought or subject-matter. 

While the written test has these and other advantages, 
more specially as a test of knowledge, it has its serious 
itsLimita- limitations. It cannot be made a universal 
tions. .(-ggi- Qf teaching results or even a general 
test. It does not cover all the studies and disciplines 
of the school course. It is not an adequate test of 
power or skill since these results are mainly tested by 



WRITTEN EXERCISES. 171 

action or doing (p. 92), as in reading and singing. It 
wholly fails as a test of the will or the conscience or 
other moral forces in the Hfe. It has no proof of virtue 
or character. Indeed, the most important results in school 
training escape the written test and the " j^er cent table." 
The function of the written test is to supplement the 
searching oral test, and hence special care should be 
taken not to give it undue importance in union of 
school training. It is easy for a teacher to ?J?'. ^"'^ 
neglect or to slight the recitation proper, the Testing, 
best factor in such training, and make the less fre- 
quent written test a frightful bugbear to sensitive 
pupils. There ought to be no more anxiety or excite- 
ment connected with written tests than with oral tests ; 
and, to this end, no more should depend on 

^ Not to be 

the results. They should come to pupils made a 
unheralded and as a part of their school B"et>ear. 
experience. There should be no fuss over them or in view 
of them, and they should certainly never be made a whip 
or a spur to urge pupils to greater application. On the 
contrary, tests whether oral or written should accom- 
pany the other teaching processes as a constant stimulus 
and encouragement. Their pressure should not be fitful 
and spasmodic, but gentle and steady. The more the 
attention of pupils is focused on stated examinations, 
the more they fall into memoriter and mechanical 
methods of study. They work for examination marks 
as ends. The best work is done when there is the 
freest play of natural motives, and the poorest when 
there is an absorbing interest in examination results. 
The freer a school is kept from spasms of unnatural 
interest and effort, the better its mental training and 
the more wholesome its life and influence. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS. 

For a few years past there has been a wide and earnest 
discussion of the propriety of making the results of writ- 
written Ex- ten examinations the basis (i) for the bestow- 
aminations. rncut of scholastic rewards and honors; or (2) 
for determining the comparative success or standing of 
schools and teachers ; or (3) for the promotion and classi- 
fication of pupils. The discussion has centered largely on 
the last question, to wit : tJie propriety of making the 7'esults 
of written examinations the basis for the pi'omotion and 
classification of pupils. 

In the discussion of this question there has been mani- 
fest a strange misunderstanding of the real issue; and, as 
Real Issue 2. result, uiuch inconscqucntial talk and no little 
obscured, confusion. Thosc who had long used written 
examinations in the promotion of pupils rushed to the 
defense of written tests in teaching as if their value for 
teaching purposes was the question at issue. Others 
minimized the value of written tests for teaching pur- 
poses, to discredit their use for promotion purposes. 
Thus the simple practical issue was greatly obscured. 
Indeed, such was the general confusion for a time that 
cities that discontinued the use of stated written exami- 
nations in the promotion of pupils were announced as 
having abolished written examinations in their schools, — 
and this not only in the daily papers but even in school 
journals ! 

172 



PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS. 



173 



Another source of confusion was the failure to narrow 
the issue to the use of stated written examinations in 
elementaiy schools. The question was often 
discussed from the college standpoint, and mentary 
also from the use of written examinations to schools, 
determine the quahfications of adults for admission to 
special courses of training or to professional life. The 
old error of treating pupils in elementary schools as 
adults was thus repeated. It was assumed that methods 
adapted to adult students in higher institutions were 
also adapted to young children, even to those in pri- 
mary schools. No mistake in the discussion of school 
questions is more common or more misleading than 
the failure to see conditions and limitations. The 
tendency in considering even practical questions is to 
ignore limiting conditions and treat them .... 

° ^ ^ Limiting 

from some theoretical standpoint as uni- Conditions 
versal in their appHcation. This tendency >e"°''«<*- 
has been surprisingly manifest in the discussion of the 
use of stated written examinations in the promotion 
and classification of pupils. All distinctions as to the 
grade of schools and the age and abihty of pupils have 
often been ignored, it being tacitly assumed that the 
use of the system has no Hmiting conditions. 

But whatever may have been the confusion in the 
theoretical discussion of the examination question, it 
opened the eyes of teachers and school ^^-^^^^^-p^^ 
officers to the fact that the use of promotion motion Ex- 
examinations in elementary schools is at- ^™*"***°"''- 
tended with serious evils, evils injuriously affecting 
teaching, study, and supervision. Nor did it require 
unusual intelligence in school affairs to see that the 
most serious of these evils are not occasioned by the 



174 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

written examination as such, but by the use made of the 
results. When not only the promotion of pupils but also 
the efficiency of teachers and the standing of schools 
are determined by the results of stated examinations, 
such examinations must, in the nature of things, largely 

Examina- determine the scope and character of prior 
*'°Teach'in°''^ teaching and study, this being specially true 

and Study, when the written tests are prepared by the 
superintendent for all classes of the same grade in the 
schools. Experience shows that few teachers can face 
such a formal test of their efficiency and feel free to 
teach according to their best judgment and power. In- 
creasingly as the ordeal approaches, the burning ques- 
tion becomes, not what is best for the pupils, but what 
will "count" in the examination. Under this pressure, 
teaching inevitably sinks into the art of preparing 
pupils to pass examinations, and this often becomes a 
pretty fine art. Former tests are scanned 

Preparing ir j 

Wares for for " probablc " questions, and the arts of 
the Market. ^^^ coachcr and crammer take the place of 
rational training. Teaching thus degenerates into the 
art of preparing wares for the examination market. 

It does not seem necessary to give in this place an 

enumeration of the evils that have attended stated pro- 

, motion examinations in graded schools, these 

Summary of *^ 

Resulting cvlls bciug uow almost universally recognized. 
^^^^^' It must suffice to say that they have pre- 
vented the best efforts of teachers, narrowing and 
grooving their instruction and training ; they have occa- 
sioned and made well-nigh imperative the use of mechan- 
ical methods ; they have occasioned cramming and other 
vicious habits of study ; they have caused overpressure 
with overstudy at the stated examination periods, often 



PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS. 175 

with injury to health; and, by no means least, they have 
permitted and encouraged routine and mechanical school 
supervision, the very point where the mechanism of the 
system touches the life of the schools. 

The more clearly the evils resulting from the exam- 
ination system of promoting pupils have been recog- 
nized, the more evident has become the 
necessity of their correction. There are few c^ire'ting 
cities in the country that have not adopted ^^"'• 
plans for lessening these evils, while city after city has 
aboHshed the examination system and provided for the 
promotion of pupils chiefly on the judgment of teachers, 
this judgment being expressed in some cases in monthly 
estimates of pupils' work and attainments, the same 
being recorded in a simple manner. Indeed, this move- 
ment to remedy the evils of the examination system of 
promoting pupils has been a marked feature of recent 
progress in the administration of pubHc schools. When 
the author's - Elements of Pedagogy " was pubHshed in 
1886, the promotion of pupils on the results of stated 
written examinations was general in the graded schools 
m the United States. At this writing pupils are pro- 
moted on the judgment or estimates of teach- judgment of 
ers in many cities, including a score or more Teachers, 
of the largest cities in the country, and many other cities 
make the teacher's judgment a considerable, if not chief, 
element in the promotion basis.i The testimony is con- 
clusive that the non-use of stated promotion examina- 
tions has been attended with a gratifying improvement 

1 The change in Great Britain has been even more general and marked 
than m the United States. The Government School Inspectors in Eng- 
land are not permitted to hold examinations at stated times and the 
rankmg of schools and pupils is no longer based on examination results. 



176 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

in the spirit of the schools, in less mechanical and more 
rational teaching, and generally with more satisfactory 
results ; and, where the estimate plan has been intelli- 
gently administered, there has been no loss in classifica- 
tion. 

It is conceded that the promotion of pupils on the 

judgment of teachers requires efficient oversight, and 

this is true whatever may be the mode of 

Supervisory -' 

Efficiency ascertaining such judgment, — the weakest 
required, ^^gjj^g ^j^g rccommcndation of teachers at the 
time of promotion. But efficiency in the supervisory 
office is essential to all effective administration of 
schools. When a superintendent or principal is not 
competent to secure from teachers rehable judgments 
as to the attainments of their pupils, a change is needed 
either in teachers or in supervisor. 

There is no more necessity for vitiating differences 
in the judgments of teachers as to their pupils' success 
Reliability of than in examination results when the papers 
Teachers, ^j-g j-g^^j by different persons. Several ex- 
periments have shown that teachers in different schools 
will vary from ten to twenty per cent in marking the 
same papers. Teachers as a class are as reliable in their 
estimates as in grading examination papers. When the 
estimate plan was adopted in Cincinnati a former super- 
intendent expressed the fear that the upper grades 
would be crowded with ill-prepared pupils ; that poor 
pupils would be advanced by teachers '* to get rid of 
them ! " 

The results showed that a smaller percentage of pupils 
were promoted to the higher grades under the estimate 
plan than had been previously promoted under the 
examination system, and this was not an unanticipated 



PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS. lyy 

result. Examination results often promote pupils who 
m the judgment of their teachers, are not prepared to' 
do the work of the next higher grade, this ^^3^,, 
being frequently the case when promotion ExpTr'ime°nt. 
tests are grooved to an outlined narrow course of in- 
struction. Indeed, every teacher of experience knows 
that it is possible to prepare weak pupils to pass grooved 
examinations, just as managers of normal institutes 
of the ''revised type" know that it is possible in 
two or three weeks to prepare poor scholars to pass 
exammations for a teacher's certificate, this being 
done in several states year after year as a means of 
school progress! 

It is, however, conceded that it requires more intelli- 
gent oversight to promote pupils on the judgment of 
teachers than upon the results of stated ex- 
aminations, but this is true of all rational suTerXon 
school work. True teaching requires higher "^^'^^'*- 
qualifications in the teacher than poor t'eaching. The 
more mechanical the method, the lower the qualifica- 
tions required to use it. Rational methods always re- 
quire high intelligence and skill. Scientific methods 
are possible only to teachers who possess scientific 
attainments and insight. 

Teaching Tests. 

It seems unnecessary to add that the promotion of 
pupils on the judgment or estimates of teachers does 
not prevent the freest use of written tests in Teaching 
teaching. As already shown, the test is a Test's"^ 
vital teaching process, and, whether oral or written, its 
results enter into the teacher's judgment of the pupil's 

ART OF TEACHING— 12 



178 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

attainments. Such a judgment necessarily includes not 
only the pupil's fidelity but also his success in school 
work, and success is largely shown by the tests that go 
pari passu with instruction. It is true that the results 
of teaching tests may not enter mechanically or mathe- 
matically into the teacher's estimates, but they are none 
the less real and trustworthy. There is no surer evi- 
dence of a pupil's fitness for promotion than his fidehty 
and success from month to month in the work of the 
grade from which he is to be promoted. 

What has been said of teaching tests also applies to 
supervisory tests, that is, tests instituted by a principal 
Supervisory 01" Superintendent to disclose defects in teach- 

Tests. ing or study, or to suggest changes in methods 
of teaching. It is true that defects in school work may 
usually be learned by intelligent inspection, but it is 
sometimes desirable to give pupils an opportunity to see 
for themselves the hmitations and imperfections of their 
attainments. There is no such eye opener for a teacher 
or a class as a searching written test instituted to dis- 
close defects, and there is no better way to disclose the 
need of better methods of instruction and study. To 
these ends the results of such a test do not need to be 
recorded. The bookkeeping business kills the super- 
visory as well as the teaching test. Its purpose is not 
to compare teachers or pupils, but to render both teach- 
ers and pupils needed assistance, and hence supervisory 
tests should be kept in close touch with the work of the 
school. It is too late to discover at the close of a term 
or year that pupils have been improperly taught, or have 
failed to do assigned work. This information should be 
ascertained in time to correct errors and secure more 
satisfactory results. 



PROMO TION EXAMINA TIONS. 



179 



It is also to be noted that promotion tests cannot 
well be made to serve the purposes of teaching or super- 
visory tests. It is always difficult to prepare Promotion 
promotion tests that will be sua:2:estive to 'r^stspoor 

, , , . Teaching 

teachers, and, at the same tmie, fair to pupils. Tests. 
If the questions are much broader than the teaching, 
they are liable to "slaughter" the pupils; and, if they 
are not broader than the teaching, they are sure to nar- 
row and groove the teacher's work. The attempt to make 
promotion tests disclose defects in teaching or in the 
course of study always involves this serious dilemma. 
They are either unfair to the pupils, causing them to 
fail of promotion, or they have little supervisory value. 
There is certainly no place here for the vicarious princi- 
ple that one class of pupils may be made to suffer for 
the benefit of the pupils who are to come after them. 

A supervisory test may properly go outside of the 
known work of the teacher, for the very purpose of 
making it broader. It may wisely be de- 
signed to disclose what pupils do not know, supervfsory 
and to suggest a more rational and effect- ^^^*^- 
ive method of teaching or study. The writer once sent 
a series of questions into an eighth year grade to call 
attention to the fact that it is possible for pupils to repeat 
certain statements respecting the change of seasons and 
not have much real knowledge of the subject. The ques- 
tions submitted included the following : 

1 . {a) Why is it warmer at noon than at 9 o'clock in the morning ? 
ip) Why is it warmer in Ohio in July than in January? 

2. {a) In what month is the sun nearest the zenith at noon in Cin- 
cinnati ? {p) In what month is it farthest from the zenith at noon ? 

3. What is the difference in degrees between the highest and the 
lowest altitude of the sun at noon in Cincinnati .? 



l8o THE ART OF TEACHING. 

4. {a) Is the sun at this time (November) going from or approach- 
ing the zenith ? {b) When will there be a change ? When the next 
change ? 

5. If you lived at the equator, would the sun ever be directly over 
your head at noon ? If so, when ? 

6. {a) In how many and what months is the sun north of the 
zenith at noon at the equator ? ((5') In what months is it south of the 
zenith at noon ? 

7. {a) Are the rays of the sun ever vertical at the tropic of can- 
cer at noon ? If so, when ? {b^ Are they ever vertical north of the 
tropic of cancer ? At the tropic of Capricorn ? If so, when ? 

8. If you lived on the equator, in what direction would your 
shadow fall at noon in July ? In January ? 

9. In what month are the shadows of vertical objects in Cincin- 
nati longest at noon ? In what month are the shadows shortest ? 
Why? 

10. {a) When does the sun rise exactly in the east ? {b) In what 
months does it rise north of east ? South of east ? (<:) When does 
it rise farthest north of east ? 

1 1 . When the rays of the sun are vertical at the tropic of cancer, 
which zone has no day ? Which zone has no night ? 

12. {a) Which pole of the earth is now (November) in continu- 
ous darkness ? {U) Which will be in continuous darkness next April ? 
{c) Why the change ? 

The returns made by the teachers included (i) the 

number of pupils examined ; (2) number who answered 

Returns question I correctly; (3) number who an- 

made. swercd 2 correctly, and so on to 12. It is 
evident that such a report would give a superintendent a 
general idea not only of the general character of the in- 
struction, but also its weak points, knowledge that could 
not have been gained from percentages of correct an- 
swers on the series of questions as a whole. A sugges- 
tive conference with teachers of the grade resulted in 
an earnest review of the subject, with greatly improved 
attainments. It is plain that it would have been a great 



PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS. \%\ 

injustice to the pupils if these questions had been made 
a promotion test. 

The classification of pupils in a graded system of 
schools is at best attended with serious difficulties. 
While the hitrhest success in class instruc- ^. 

" Classifica- 

tion requires that pupils possess nearly equal tion of 

ability and attainments (p. 141), the interests P"p»^= 
and needs of pupils require that each be given an oppor- 
tunity to do the work best suited to his ability and con- 
dition. It thus appears that there are two somewhat 
conflicting factors in the classification of pupils, to wit : 
the demands of the class system for uniformity, and, 
over against this, the interests and needs of pupils. It 
is not difficult, as experience has shown, to subordinate 
the latter to the former, but the supreme obligation of 
the school is to subserve the interests of its piipils. The 
system is for the pupils, and not the pupils for the 
system. Moreover, the proper classification of pupils 
involves other elements than the basis of promotion, 
howsoever determined. The problem includes the course 
of instruction, the interval between successive classes, 
the number of classes in a room, etc., questions some- 
what foreign to our present purpose. 

It must suffice to add that the reforms in the pro- 
motion and classification of pupils herein reviewed or 
suggested do not involve the exclusion of „ . 

^^ Meaning of 

the searching examination, oral and written, Reforms 
from school training. On the contrary, they P''°P°se'*- 
mean a closer and more helpful union of testing and 
instruction, the former being made the open eye, the 
guide, and the spur of the latter. They mean the free- 
ing of examinations from the rule of the program, 
making them spontaneous, occasional, helpful, and free. 



1 82 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

They mean that the teacher shall ask, ''What is best 
for the pupil . " and not, " What will count ? " They 
mean that teaching is to be a noble art, and not the 
sorry trade of preparing wares for the examination 
market. They mean that the teacher shall know the 
ability and progress of his pupils, and that his knowl- 
edge shall be respected and honored. They mean, as 
elsewhere stated,^ that the principal is to be the head 
teacher, and not the pencil sharpener and the boss 
whipper ; the trainer and guide of teachers, and not a 
crank turner and method grinder. They mean that the 
superintendent is to be the instructor, inspirer, and 
leader of the teaching corps, and not a mechanical 
engineer of the school machine. They mean that the 
schools are to be for the pupils, and not the pupils for 
the schools. They mean that health and vigor are to 
stand before per cents ; mental power and culture be- 
fore cram, and moral character before rank. They 
mean that school life is to be more and more an inspi- 
ration and delight to all youth that love knowledge and 
mastery. 

1 White's " Promotions and Examinations in Graded Schools," p. 6i. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PRIMARY READING. 

Principles and Methods. 

In no other branch of school training is a clear knowl- 
edge of the ends to be attained more important than in 
the teaching of reading, and this is specially true in the 
first lessons. The importance of this knowledge of ends 
is enhanced by the fact that reading is not a simple art 
with a single guiding end, but is a complex art includ- 
ing several simple arts with different ends. This fact 
has not always been recognized in the devising and 
advocacy of methods of teaching reading, and unfortu- 
nately too great stress has been placed upon so-called 
methods. 

Two general views as to the results to be attained in 
teaching reading to children have dominated in the 
devising and use of methods. One of these 

11 -1 1- <- '^w° Views. 

Views looks upon silent reading as the art of 
recognizing in succession the words on the written or 
printed page, oral reading adding the correct pronuncia- 
tion or utterance of these words with a proper observ- 
ance of the pauses. This was the view generally held 
by elementary teachers when the writer was a child in 
school. The other view regards silent reading as the 
art of getting the thought expressed by written or 
printed words, oral reading adding the proper utterance 
of the thought and feeling thus apprehended. 

183 



1 84 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

It is not meant that either of these views wholly 
excludes the other. Those who hold the first view, 
recognize in some degree that reading is a means of 
getting the meaning of the printed page, but in their 
methods they specially aim at word calHng, and not at 
thought getting. Those who hold the second view recog- 
nize the fact that word recognition is a necessary means 
of thought reading, but their methods specially aim at 
the grasp and utterance of the thought. 

The practical difference of these two views will be 

Special more clearly seen by a glance at the special 
Methods, mcthods which they have inspired. 

The first has resulted in the devising of the a-b-c 
method, the syllabic method, the phonic method, the so- 
called synthetic method, each of these methods having 
for its primary aim the training of pupils in the power 
to recognize and pronounce written or printed words. 
The phonic and synthetic methods are based on the fact 
that the sounds which compose a spoken word give, 
when synthesized, the name of the printed word. Many 
words when spoken are composed of the sounds of all 
the letters which make up their printed form, and hence 
these purely phonetic words are readily taught. 

The second view of reading has resulted in the de- 
vising of the word method, so strongly advocated by 
Horace Mann, the sentence method, and the so-called 
thought method, each method having for its special end 
the training of pupils in the power to get the thought 
expressed by written or printed words ; in other words, 
the training of pupils in thought reading and not in 
mere word calHng. It is to be noted that each of these 
three methods takes its name from the one feature in the 
initial steps in reading that is specially emphasized by it. 



PRIMARY READING. 1 85 

The limitations of the several methods of teaching 

reading, named above, are evident when viewed in the 

light of the different acts or processes that Limitations 

are included in the art of reading. Reading °^ Methods. 

includes (i) the recognition at sight of the written or 

printed words, (2) a knowledge of their meaning and use, 

and (3), in oral reading, their correct and 

' Acts in- 

facile utterance. These acts or arts are es- eluded in 

sential to the reading of a sentence. In Reading, 
addition to this essential word mastery, the art of read- 
ing includes (4) the grasp of the thought and feeling 
expressed by the words, and (5)-, in oral reading, their 
correct and clear expression. But in order that the 
thought of a sentence may be readily apprehended, the 
eye must acquire the art of taking in the sentence as a 
whole by a synthetic glance. So long as the eye and the 
mind linger on successive words, hitching from one 
word to another, sentences as wholes are not seen, and 
the easy grasp of the thought and its proper vocal 
expression are not possible. The act of taking in a 
group of words with a quick sweep of the eye must 
become automatic before facile reading is possible. 
There must be word recognition without the focusing 
of attention on the successive words. Reading involves 
a rapid synthesis of words and ideas, the synthetic 
glance of eye and mind. 

This brief analysis of the different acts involved in 
reading makes clear the importance of forming correct 
automatic habits in primary lessons, and correct 
this becomes a good test of the value of Habits, 
methods. In the light of these facts let us glance at 
each of the seven methods of teaching reading named 
above. 



1 86 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

The a-b-c or letter method aims primarily to teach 

words as fonns. It proceeds on the assumption that 

The a-b-c written or printed words are recognized from 

Method. ti^e letters of which they are made up. The 
method has been widely condemned on the ground that 
it cannot give pupils the power to make out new words, 
and, for the reason, that the names of the letters of a 
word are not when synthesized the name of the word. 
Thus, the names of the letters cat, when spoken 
together, do not give kat, but se-a-te. Yet notwith- 
standing this objection, many thousands of persons 
taught by the a-b-c method have, in some way, early 
acquired the power to recognize even new words at 
sight, and the deaf readily learn to recognize words as 
forms without their knowing the names, much less the 
sounds, of the letters that compose them. As will 
appear later, the ability of children taught by the letter 
method to make out new words, is largely due to 
syllabic power, often acquired unconsciously. The 
special weakness of the old a-b-c drill was the focusing 
Automatic of the pupil's attention on the letters in the 

Habit. successive words, resulting in the automatic 
habit of letter and word attention with indifference to 
the thought, often resulting in the very bad habit of 
hitching from word to word, the eye and the mind 
keeping step together. In the writer's boyhood in 
school he stood in the reading class next to a much 
older boy who spelled mentally every word read, usually 
moving his Hps at each letter. This was done auto- 
matically on words perfectly known, as " and," *' to," 
"is," "was," etc. This idiotic habit was early formed 
by "spelling words out loud" before pronouncing 
them, a stupid practice in the old-time school. Thou- 



PRIMARY READJXG. 1 87 

sands of persons thus drilled in childhood have never 
been able to free the eye to take in words as wholes, 
much less a group of words or a sentence. 

The ability to recognize syllabic combinations of let- 
ters is the real secret of the a-b-c method in giving 
pupils facility in recognizing new words at The syiiabic 
sight. In the old-time school the reading Method. 
and spelling drills passed from the alphabet to com- 
binations of letters, first those of two letters, as aby cb, 
ib, ob, etc., then combinations of three letters, and so 
on. Pupils were thus made familiar with those type 
combinations of letters which constitute the syllables 
in English words. It was this syllabic drill which gave 
young pupils the ability to recognize and pronounce 
words with facility. At less than six years of age the 
writer was able to read the New Testament with unde- 
sirable rapidity, that is, was able to name the words. It 
is a question whether pupils intelligently taught by this 
syllabic method did not become as skillful word readers 
as those now taught by phonic methods. The start 
was slower, for syllabic skill was at first acquired 
somewhat unconsciously, but when what are called 
the syllabic phones of English words were mastered, 
progress was rapid. When the syllabic habit and 
the syllabic sense are established, new words are 
made out with greater facility than by the synthesis of 
their elements, whether letters or sounds. Certainly, 
the oral naming of the letters in words is small, if any, 
help in their recognition, while the habit of doing this 
is a fatal obstacle to natural reading. 

The phonic method aims to associate the sounds of 
letters with their forms, and to train pupils in the syn- 
thesis of the sounds of the several letters in words. 



1 88 ^ THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Words are thus made out by a synthesis of their phonic 
elements. The method is evidently most successful 
The Phonic in teaching purely phonetic words, that 

Method. jg^ words which are made up, when spoken, 
of the sounds of all their letters. Fortunately, the 
child's vocabulary contains many such words, as is 
shown by an ordinary primer. 

The phonic method was in use in Boston and several 

other American cities early in the fifties. In the first 

Earl Us ^^ssous in reading, pupils were persistently 

of Phonic drilled in the phonic analysis of words, and 

Method. ^j^-g ^^g attended later by the use of diacriti- 
cal marks. This training resulted in a good degree of 
skill in making out new words and increased accuracy 
in the pronunciation of words. But the attention of the 
pupils was largely focused on words, and reading became 
largely a process of word calling, the grasp and expres- 
sion of the thought receiving little attention. 

In the sixties a new impulse was given to the phonic 

method by the invention of the Leigh type in which 

each letter had a special form for each of its 

Leigh Type. 

sounds, the original form of the letter being 
well preserved. This " Pronouncing Orthography," as 
it was called, was used for several years in the schools 
of Boston, New York, St. Louis, Washington, and sev- 
eral other cities, and the success of the device was 
strongly attested in the successive reports of the cities 
named. Indeed, so great was the demand for the new 
pronouncing type that an edition of the primers in 
several standard series of readers was printed in it. 
But as early as 1880 the Leigh type had largely dis- 
appeared from American schools, being displaced in 
many instances by the use of diacritical marks. 



PRIMARY READING. 1 89 

The English phonic systems have had a like history. 
The " Robinson Phonic System," one of the most com- 
plete yet invented, is now, according to the testimony 
of D. Salmon,! practically dead, " the instruction book 
being actually out of print." Sir Isaac Pitman's '' Pho- 
netic System " was designed to be used as an introduc- 
tion to the reading of common type, and though the 
method was enthusiastically pushed both in England 
and America its actual use in the schools was limited. 

The so-called synthetic method takes its name from 
the fact that it lays great stress on the teaching of 
words by the synthesis of their phonic ele- ^^^ 
ments. It makes free use of diacritical synthetic 
marks to denote the pronunciation of words, ^^thod. 
and rules are given for the sounds of vowels, for silent 
letters, etc. \ The special stress of the reading exercise 
is given to the " marking " of words, the repeating of 
phonic rules, and the pronunciation of words by a syn- 
thesis of their elementary sounds. This is often con- 
tinued by enthusiastic teachers for months as if it 
were a necessary process in learning to read.^ ) The 
result is commendable skill in pronouncing new words, 
but the method focuses the attention unduly on words, 
with resulting indifference to the grasp and expression 
of the thought, and this often becomes an automatic 
habit not easily overcome. 

The use of diacritical marks in first lessons in reading 
is easily overdone, a liability that attends the use of 

1 Salmon's ** Art of Teaching," p. 79. 

2 " I remember hearing a teacher chide a pupil for reading a sentence 
before she had time to mark the vowels, but since the child could and did 
read without such help, the marking was evidently unnecessary." — Sarah 
Louise Arnold in " Reading: How to Teach It." 



190 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

all mechanical devices. These marks may properly be 
used to donate the sounds of letters, and also the pro- 
Diacritical nunciation of words written or printed sepa- 

Marks. rately ; but the words in the sentences 
to be read by pupils should not be thus marked. 
The habit of relying on such artificial aid becomes an 
actual hindrance in reading common type. / The fact 
seems to be overlooked that children learn to speak 
correctly hundreds of words without any aid from 
the eye. ] 

The fact that the making out of words either from 

their letters or their phonic elements proves a hindrance 

The Word in the proper reading of sentences suggested 

Method. tQ Mj. Webb and others that the words occur- 
ring in the first lessons in reading should be taught as 
tvholeSy and in advance of sentence reading. It was 
found by trial that this could easily be done, and the 
recognition of the words at sight thus be secured. This 
made it possible to train the eye to take in groups of 
words and sentences, and to direct the attention to the 
thought to be grasped and read. 

This method, called the word method, was in use in 
the primary schools of Cleveland as early as 1854, pos- 
sibly earlier, and the pupils read lessons 

Early Use. •' ^ ^ 

from the board and from charts and primers 
with charming natural expression. In the opinion of 
the writer no other city in the country secured at that 
day such an admirable reading of the thought by young 
pupils as Cleveland. All new words in reading lessons 
were taught in advance of any attempt at the reading 
of the sentences. As a result there was no hitching 
from word to word and, under skillful teaching, no hesi- 
tation on words. The pupils were trained to take in 



PRIMARY READING. 19I 

groups of words and sentences by a synthetic glance, 
and the readmg was free, natural, and expressive. 

But it was soon evident that the method was being 
used too exckisively and much too long. Even second- 
year pupils had small abihty to make out new weakness of 
words, and their indifference to the letters in Method, 
words appeared in poor speUing. The result was a strik- 
ing example of the persistence of habit when action 
becomes automatic. It was also found that the pupils 
largely relied upon the teacher or other person for new 
words, and this resulted in their stumbling over untaught 
words, even in simple lessons. Means were soon em- 
ployed to supplement the method and correct its ten- 
dencies. Its exclusive use was limited to three or four 
months, and when pupils had acquired the power to take 
in at a glance groups of words and sentences, it was 
dropped even as an initial step. 

The so-called sentence method begins with the sen- 
tence as a wJiole. A fact is developed objectively and 
expressed in an oral sentence, and then this TheSentence 
sentence is written on the board. The pupils Method, 
look at the marks on the board and repeat the oral sen- 
tence, and this is called reading the sentence as a whole. 
The several words in the sentence are next taught, first 
as wholes (word method), and then the sentence is read 
by a synthesis of its words. In a few weeks many sen- 
tences may thus be given, and the pupils taught to 
recognize scores of words at sight. 

It is evident that the sentences written on the board 
are not at first read in any true sense of the word. The 
so-called reading is simply a repetition of the sentences 
oral sentence, and this would be done just as not Read. 
well if there was no separation of the words in the writ- 



192 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

ten sentence ; as for example, " Mary has anappleinher- 
hand.'' The repetition of this sentence, even while 
looking at it, is not reading it. Instead of getting the 
thought from the sentence, which is reading, the thought 
is put into the sentence. In speech and writing thought 
is put into sentences ; in reading thought is gotten out 
of written or printed sentences. The sentence method 
puts the emphasis on the reading of the sentence, and 
secures from the first the natural expression of the 
thought. Its superiority to the word method is, how- 
ever, not evident. 

The sentence method is also called the thought 
method for the reason that the process begins with 
The Thought ^^^^ thought, at first expressed orally. The 

Method. order is first the development of the 
thought, next its oral expression, and then the writing 
of the sentence on the board. One of the earliest advo- 
cates of this method of teaching primary reading,^ called 
it '' The Thought and Sentence Method," but the pro- 
cess became generally known as the sentence method, 
and, to a more limited extent, as the thought method. 

One of the common reasons assigned in the advocacy 

of the device was the assumption that the thought is the 

Ph'i s h ^^^^ ^^ knowledge, and hence the sentence 

of the is the unit of language. This was put forth 

^^'^°'*- as the '' philosophy " of the method ; but it so 
happens that the thought is not the unit of knowledge, 
but rather ideas and concepts, which are expressed by 
words. An idea or a concept is as truly knowledge as 
a thought. Such groups of words as "a tall tree," *'a 
large boy," "the blue sky," ** the green grass," etc., as 

1 Mr. George L. Farnham, then Superintendent of the public schools 
of Binghamton, N.Y. 



PRIMARY READING. 



193 



truly express knowledge as the formal sentences " The 
tree is tall ; " '' The boy is large ; " *' The sky is blue," etc. 
Indeed, the child's first knowledge is expressed by single 
words and by phrases, not by formal sentences. The 
word method used by skillful teachers demonstrated the 
fact that children may be as greatly interested in ideas 
and concepts and their expression as in sentences. 
Moreover, the thought or sentence method has at best 
a very limited use, it being best used in connection with 
sentences written on the board. It has no practical 
advantage when the primer or first reader is reached. 

It is doubtful whether the thought and sentence 
method should be used continuously even for a few 
days. When used, immediate attention should 
be given to the words, and the pupils should ^''"''"'^ "=^- 
be trained in passing from the words to the sentence 
and its thought. Otherwise pupils become dependent 
upon the teacher both for the thought and its expression, 
and this results in careless reading, the omission or in- 
sertion of words, etc. This is especially true in reading 
long sentences or those in which modifying words are 
not essential to the expression of the main thought. 
Pupils glance at sentences as wholes and ''jump at the 
thought." 

It is evident from this brief survey that no one of the 
so-called methods of teaching reading is a complete 
method, even for the first lessons. Each is no Method 
a device for the attainment of a certain result. Complete, 
and this is only one of several results that are attained in 
the complex art of reading. Moreover, it is seen that 
the exclusive use of any one of these methods, even for 
a few weeks, results in some habit or tendency that must 

ART OF TEACHING — 1 3 



194 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

be corrected before accurate and natural reading is 
possible. 

These facts suggest that the first lessons in read- 
ing should be given by such a combination of pro- 
union of cesses or methods as shall result not only in 
Methods, neccssary word mastery but also in facile 
thought reading. It is also evident that this involves 
the teaching of words in such a manner as not to pre- 
vent early and persistent practice in sentence reading, 
the grasp and expression of the thought. It is possible 
that this result may not depend on any special combina- 
tion of processes or on any given order of procedure. 
More may depend on the teacher's clear knowledge of 
the results to be attained, and her skill in recognizing 
and meeting the needs of the pupils. It may, however, 
be helpful to suggest ways in which desired results may 
be secured and bad results avoided. This will be 
attempted in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 

Union of Methods. 

It is essential that the child read from the first not 
only words and phrases, but,increasingly, sentences. To 
this end, the first reading lessons should be given by 
the use of the blackboard. No chart or primer can 
take the place of the blackboard in these beginning 
lessons. The only wise use that can at first be made of 
chart or primer is to supplement the board lessons. 

The use of the board involves the question whether 
script or print or both should be used in these first les- 
sons. Experience has fully shown that there script or 
are advantages in first using plain script. P""* 
The teacher can multiply sentences much more readily 
in script than in print. Nothing is gained by the use 
of both script and print from the first. When the time 
comes to use a print chart or primer, the transition from 
script to print is quickly made, the similarity of script 
and print words greatly lessening the supposed diffi- 
culty. Besides, script charts may be used in connection 
with the early board lessons. 

The writer has in recent years changed his opinion 
on the propriety of requiring young children to write 
the words first taught, and especially in schools that 

1 For a helpful presentation of the first steps in reading, see " Elements 
of Pedagogy," pp. 221-237, and Miss Arnold's "Reading: How to teach 
It," Chapter III. 

195 



196 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

receive children at five years of age. There should 
be very little, if any, pen or pencil writing or printing 

Writing by children at this early age, the reasons 

First Year. fQj- t^jg vicw being somewhat fully given in 

a previous chapter on Written Exercises. The early 

use of the pencil should be in drawing exercises with 

freer movements. 

In these board exercises care should be taken to 

introduce all words, phrases, and sentences first orally. 

Board The truc order here is first the idea or con- 

Lessons. Q,^^\_ or thought, as the case may be ; then its 
oral expression by word or phrase or sentence, and then 
the written word or phrase or sentence on the board. 
Reference has been made in the preceding chapter 
to the stress placed by some teachers on beginning 
with the sentence, first oral and then written, and then 
passing to the words therein. For reasons there given 
this order does not seem important. To read a sen- 
tence the mind must pass from the words therein to^ 
the sentence, and hence the first step in reading a sen- 
tence is to know the words. When a child knows and 
can speak a word, he quickly learns its written form, 
knowing it then both as a sound and as a form, through 
the ear and the eye. 

There is no difficulty in interesting children in read- 
ing words and phrases ; and their interest in sentences 
Word is greatly increased by the conscious process 

Method. Qf reading them. Some teachers may succeed 
best in picking the words to be learned out of sentences 
written on the board, but sentence reading is possible 
only when this process is reversed. The essential thing 
is to give the child the power to pass from known words 
to sentences. Moreover, the natural and expressive 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 197 

oral reading of senterbces depends much on the proper 
reading of the phrases therein, what is technically called 
pJu^asing being essential to correct sentence reading. 

But whatever may be true of the first score or more 
of sentences taught, children must soon come to the 
reading of sentences made up of known word 
words ; and to this end, word mastery must Mastery. 
precede sentence reading. It is not possible to read a 
sentence made up of unknown words. Great care 
should be taken the first few weeks to make children 
familiar with all new words as zvholes, both as sounds 
and as forms, before they attempt to read sentences in 
which these words occur. 

In the reading of sentences children should be trained 
to pass by a synthetic glance from the words to the sen- 
tence as a whole; and, from the first, their sentence 
sentence reading should not be the mere Reading, 
calling of the successive words, but the grasp of the 
thought and its oral expression. ^ To this end, the 
teaching of words as wholes (word method) and their 
combinations in phrases and sentences should be con- 
tinued until pupils have acquired the art of " taking in " 
short sentences at a glance and reading the thought 
with ease and natural expression. This is the basis of 
the art of reading, and the sooner it is acquired the better. 
In the absence of this fundamental skill, there can be no 
true reading. 

It has been found by wide practice that this necessary 
training in sentence reading may require the teaching 

lA pointer should not be used in reading blackboard sentences. 
Pointing to the successive words in a sentence necessitates the pupil's 
hitching from word to word instead of taking in the sentence as a whole. 
The pointer may be used in word drills. 



1 98 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

of a hundred or more carefully chosen words, words 

expressing ideas and concepts made familiar to the 

. , pupils. With these words hundreds of phrases 

Limit of ^ ^ . *^ 

Word and sentences, expressing observed and known 

Method, facts, may in a few weeks be formed, writ- 
ten on the board, and read by the pupils in a beautiful 
manner. In these exercises, objective instruction and 
the oral expression of knowledge may be effectively 
united with reading. The child's early lessons in read- 
ing should be eminently lessons in talking, in express- 
ing thought, as well as in reading thought. 

But the end sought in teaching words as wholes is 
attained in a few weeks, and the reading drill must now 
First Phonic afford the pupils needed training m making 

^""s. Qiif ^^^ words for themselves. Instead of pro- 
nouncing new words for the children, the teacher must 
help them to pronounce them. This introduces the 
phonic method, by which pupils reach the pronunciation 
of words by a synthesis of their elementary sounds. 
While pupils are learning words as wholes, and reading 
with increasing skill sentences composed of them, the 
teacher should in separate exercises begin to make 
them familiar with the phonic elements of spoken 
words, words as sounds. In these drills the appeal 
at first should be wJiolly to tJie ear^ with no reference 
whatever to the written or printed word. The objects 
with which these phonic exercises deal are sounds, 
and the eye can render no assistance in either their 
analysis or synthesis. Indeed, the written word may 
be an actual hindrance in dealing with the spoken 
word. 

This training may begin with drills in the recognition 
of words when slowly pronounced, the sounds being suf- 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 1 99 

ficiently separated to be easily recognized, as m a n, 
top, etc., and then the sounds may be so widely sepa- 
rated as to be presented to the ear as separate sounds, 
the pupils making out the word by a synthesis of its 
elements. They may next be trained in the separation 
of spoken words into their elementary sounds. A few 
moments each day devoted to such drills will enable 
the youngest pupils to catch a spoken word of one sylla- 
ble in the " conscious ear," and separate it with care 
and accuracy into its elements ; also to unite given 
phonic elements and form words. 

When pupils become somewhat skillful in the analysis 
and synthesis of spoken words, the next step is to asso- 
ciate the ele7nentary sounds with the letters . . . 

•^ _ ^ Association 

which represent them. This involves the use of sounds 
of written words, the union of the ear and ^^^ Letters, 
the eye in the phonic exercises. It seems unnecessary 
to give the details of the process. The result to be 
finally attained is the pronunciation of new written 
words by a synthesis of their phonic elements. This 
is easy when the words are purely phonetic, and there 
are other words that present no special difficulty. The 
early phonic drills should be limited to these words, and 
special difficulties avoided. Words will be met whose 
pronunciation is to be given by the teacher. 

Our English words present many phonic difficulties. 
There are few teachers who can accurately analyze by 
sound all of the words in an ordinary primer. Phonic 
Indeed, the great majority of elementary Difficulties, 
teachers cannot give accurately all of the elementary 
sounds. The writer witnesses few exercises in the 
phonic analysis of words without noting obvious 
errors. 



200 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

There are several classes of words whose phonic 
analysis is very difficult. These include words in which 

Modified ^^^ vowel is modified by coalescing with the 

Vowels. liquid or subvocal which follows it, as in ma7i, 
fast, chance, mercy, etc. There are few teachers who 
can give the exact vowel sound in such words, and 
there are many who do not pronounce this class of 
words correctly. Another difficulty pertains to obscure 
vowels in unaccented syllables, as in primer, ghittofi, 
error, creator, cajinon, secretary, evil, etc. The vowel in 
such syllables often loses its distinctive character, and 
the sound in its place, if any, so blends with the con- 
sonant that it is very difficult to separate them. Such 
syllables should not be analyzed by young pupils. The 
attempt results in error. 

Further, nothing is gained by the attempt to reach 
by phonic methods the pronunciation of words of un- 
usual orthography, as thorough, trough, neigh, tongue, 
unique, etc. The pronunciation of such words must be 
learned from the living teacher or from the dictionary or 
dictionary methods of representing the spoken word. 

All this suggests that the phonic method of teaching 
words has its obvious limitations. The phonic analysis 

Syllabic ^-ud synthcsis of words should early be sup- 

Driiis. plemented by syllabic analysis and synthesis. 
As soon as pupils know the sounds of the consonants 
and the more certain sounds of the vowels, they are pre- 
pared for drills that will enable them to recognize words 
which contain what may be called syllabic phones, with- 
out a conscious synthesis of their elements. When they 
know at they will instantly recognize mat, rat, cat, fat, bat, 
sat, etc. ; from an they will pass to man, fan, pan, ran, can, 
etc. ; from back to rack, sack, black, crack, etc. ; from light 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 201 

to sight, right, bright, night, migJit, etc. ; from book to 
look, hook, took, cook, crook, etc. 

As a means of training the power to make out new 
words at sight, there is probably no better device than 
the arranffinsf of words that contain the 

° ^ Classifica- 

same combination of letters in columns or in tion of 
paragraphs.^ A good beginning in this classi- '^°'''^s- 
fication of type words may be made from the words 
in previous lessons, words that express known ideas. 
Above each column of words may be written the com- 
mon vowel properly marked, or, if preferred, the vowel 
in \hQ first word may be marked, thus : 



a 


e 


i 


Or 


— 








man 


pen 


kit 




rod 


kite 


Kate 


moon 


fan 


hen 


mit 




nod 


bite 


mate 


noon 


pan 


ten 


sit 




pod 


mite 


slate 


coon 


ran 


men 


pit 




sod 


write 


skate 


spoon 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 




etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 



The classes of words written in columns may include 
first those containing short vowels; then those with 
long vowels and then those with other vowel sounds. 
The marking of the vowel in all the words of a class is 
unnecessary, and besides it defeats in part the purpose 
of their classification, to wit : the training of pupils inpro- 
notinciiig syllables from type combinations of letters. 
Pupils may thus be made familiar with all the common 
syllabic phones. 

When these type combinations of letters are instantly 
recognized by pupils, the phonic analysis of syiiawc 
words should give place to syllabic analysis. Analysis. 
and pupils should be trained to pronounce new words 

1 This is a return to a form of the old syllable drill which gave the 
writer and other pupils of the early day the key to new words. 



202 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

by recognizing their syllables and synthesizing them. 
Such words as finish, manjiei^s, interest, necessary, etc., 
are thus instantly known. 

This syllabic skill is an important factor in reading; 
and, when acquired, there is Httle, if any, gain in the 
continued analysis of words into their phonic elements. 
Much time may be wasted in the repeated phonic analy- 
sis of words that present no difficulty in reading or spell- 
ing. The method has value in all grades in teaching 
the pronunciation of difficult words, and words com- 
monly mispronounced, this being specially true of for- 
eign words. This is the place where diacritical marks 
have special value. Skillful teachers find little difficulty 
in teaching children to read common type. 

In four or five months pupils may begin to write words 

as they learn them, thus becoming familiar with the ele- 

writing ments of words diS forms, or what is known as 

Words. the spelHng of words. But pupils are still 
too young to do fine writing with pencil or pen. Words 
should be written in large letters, and only a few mo- 
ments each school session should be given to this work. 
The writing on slate or paper the first school year should 
be in what is known as a ** coarse hand." In the second 
school year the writing of all new words in the reading 
lessons may properly be required ; but care should still 
be taken not to demand too much pen work, especially 
with the *' finger movement." 

It is thus seen that the first lessons in reading should 
aim (i) to teach a few scores of common words as wholes, 
including their meaning and their recognition 
at sight ; (2) to impart to pupils needed skill 
in taking in groups of words, whether phrases or sen- 
tences, by a synthetic glance ; and (3) to afford them 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 203 

progressive practice in the grasp of the thought in sen- 
tences and its clear and natural oral expression. When 
these results are fairly well attained, there may be intro- 
duced drills in the analysis and synthesis of words as 
soimds, with no appeal to the eye ; and later both as 
sounds and as forms by a proper union of phonic and 
letter exercises, leading early to syllabic analysis and 
synthesis, the aim being to give pupils needed skill in 
making out new words at sight. In all this training spe- 
cial stress should be constantly placed upon sejitence read- 
ing, word mastery being viewed chiefly as a means to this 
essential end. 

Second and Third Readers. 

It is not our purpose to present here in detail the 
nature of the exercises in reading in the second and 
third school years. It must suffice to say 

■' •' Second and 

that wider observation and experience attest Third 
the practical value of the suggestions pre- trades, 
sented in the ** Elements of Pedagogy," pp. 230-237. It 
is there asserted that the first step in the reading drill in 
these grades is the teaching of words, and the more thor- 
oughly this is done the more clearly will pupils grasp 
and express the thought. This suggests that the read- 
ing lesson in these grades may properly consist of two 
corresponding exercises, the first designed to secure a 
mastery of the ivords, and the second a correct reading of 
the sentences, the first being preparatory to the second. 
These two exercises may come in the same period ; or, 
what is better when lesson periods are brief, one period 
may be devoted to the mastery of the words, and the 
next to the reading proper, the grasp and correct 
utterance of the thought. 



204 ^-^^ ^^'^ OF TEACHING. 

The stress of the entire reading drill should be placed 
on the meaning of what is read. To this end, the pupils 

Thought must be interested, their feelings awakened, 

Reading, g^^d their attention focused. All this requires 
skillful work on the part of the teacher. No mere mech- 
anism will answer. Special skill is required to teach 
lessons that appeal to the imagination. The reader 
must see with the mind's eye the picture which the 
language sketches ; and, to this end, the imagination must 
be active and responsive. It is not necessary, however, 
to carry the imaging into minute details not in the text. 
What is needed in reading is a vivid schema, not an 
elaborate image. Imaging in reading is easily overdone. 

It is not meant that nothing is to be read in these 

grades until all new words therein are taught and 

Free mastered. On the contrary, even first-year 

Reading, pupils should be encouraged to read simple 
stories " all by themselves," although this may be at- 
tended with some stumbling over unknown words. It 
is a good plan to read and reread a simple story to a 
child taking his first lessons in reading ; and, when the 
story is thus made famihar, to let the child try to read 
it. The fact that he knows the story will help him over 
unknown words, and he will be deHghted to find that he 
can read. This will awaken a strong desire to read 
other stories, thus supplying a motive for effort. 

It is also a good practice to set apart lessons in the 

readers to be sttidied by pupils, and then read without 

Test any prior teaching of words or the meaning 

Lessons. Qf paragraphs. This plan was tried in the 
Cincinnati schools with promising results. The lessons 
in the readers, more specially in the fourth and fifth 
readers, were divided into "drill lessons" and *'test 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 205 

lessons," the former being used to train those powers 
involved in correct oral reading, and the latter to test the 
pupil's ability *' to husk the thought " of the printed page. 
The grasp of the thought in the test lessons was judged 
largely from its oral expression by the reader ; and, when 
the expression was uncertain evidence, the pupil was 
questioned as to the meaning of words and phrases as 
well as of sentences and paragraphs, but care was taken 
not to make the exercise a drill in reading. Its purpose 
was to test reading power. The effort of the pupils was 
focused on the clear expression of the writer's thought ; 
and, to this end, on the clear grasp of the thought. The 
readers used were found to contain sufficient material 
for both classes of reading exercises. In some schools, 
supplementary readers are used for this test purpose.' 
It should be noted that these test exercises were pre- 
ceded by a careful study by the pupils of the pieces to 
be read, with free access to the dictionary and other aids 
to the grasp of the meaning. They were not expected 
to read new selections intelligently at sight. 

This raises a question as to the practical value of 
much of the so-called "sight reading" in primary 
schools. They are often exercises in word sight 
calling, not in thought reading. The writer Reading, 
has seen a story, new to the children, read in a class 
from a single book, the book being passed from pupil to 
pupil.^ It was necessarily mere word naming, and those 
who listened evidently caught only the more striking in- 
cidents. It was not good practice in oral reading, and 
it was not easy to discover what valuable result was 
attained. It requires a high degree of skill to read 
mtelligently the printed page at sight. Too much of 
the silent reading by children, and also by adults, 



206 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

is the mere skimming of the printed page, with little 
clear grasp of the meaning, and in oral reading this be- 
comes mere word utterance. Children need to be some- 
what familiar with a story before they attempt to read 
it aloud. It is important that the first three or four 
years in school give children good reading habits. 
Something is wrong when children are taken over four or 
five readers with so small ability to read the printed page. 
It seems important to add that it is not enough that 
early training in reading give due attention to what 
Reading "^^Y ^e Called the mechanics of the art. It 
Motive. is much more important that the child's de- 
sire to read be awakened, and that this desire be grati- 
fied and quickened at every step of his progress. An 
eager desire to learn to read leaps difficulties over which 
a mechanical routine stumbles and falls. The most 
vital work of the teacher is to awaken this desire, to 
arouse interest, and otherwise to quicken the motives that 
prompt effort. The child's desire to read is awakened 
by hearing others read that which interests him. '' The 
child's mind," says Miss Arnold, '' should be furnished 
with the best stories and poems before he begins his 
primer. So shall he long to master the art which shall 
open books to him for his own reading, and every step 
which his feet take in the path to his desire, shall bring 
him consciously nearer to the longed-for treasure." ^ 

We can only glance at what children should read in 

these early years. It seems to go without saying that 

what is read by children or to them should 

What ■' 

should be not only interest and please, but should also 

^^^^' create a taste for good literature; and it is 

here to be remembered that what is worth reading 

1 " Reading : How to teach It," p. 29. 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 20/ 

once by a child or to a child is worth reading several 
times. It is not what he hears or reads that tells, but 
what becomes a part of his possession and life, a 
memory treasure. 

This suggests that it is possible for children to read 
too many books. It is feared that in some schools young 
pupils are encouraged to read too much. It too much 
sometimes happens that a rivalry is created Reading. 
among pupils as to the number of books read by them 
in a given time, and an appaUing number of books read 
is not unfrequently reported. It needs no examination 
to disclose the fact that many of these books are skimmed, 
not really read, and that much of the reading is done 
under conditions injurious to eyesight and to the nerv- 
ous system generally. Proper attention should be given 
by teachers and parents to the quantity as well as the 
quality of children's reading. The time spent by a child 
over books should be limited. More play and work and 
less reading of stories would be a good thing for a great 
many young people. There is no virtue in reading of 
itself. All depends on what is read, and how fully it is 
understood and made a part of the reader's life. It is 
not what the eye passes over, but what the soul takes 
into itself that tells. 

Reading in Higher Grades. 

The reading exercise, especially in the higher grades, 
should have for its twofold purpose : (i) the clear grasp 
and appreciation of the meaning of what is Ends to be 
to be read, and (2) the natural oral expression attained, 
of what is thus grasped and appreciated. The reading 
drill should be held intelligently to the realization of 



208 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

these ends. Its purposes are as definite as those involved 
in the study of a demonstration in Euclid. The one 
essential thing to be known is the meaning of the selec- 
tion, and the one thing to be done is to give oral expres- 
sion to this meaning. Whatever can throw Hght on this 
meaning or assist in its expression has a legitimate place 
in the reading exercise; but whatever obscures these 
purposes or dissipates effort should be excluded. 

It is true that this rule may exclude many things that 

would be of interest and possibly of some value to the 

pupils, but it makes a successful reading exer- 

omnium cisc possiblc. It is easy to make a reading 
Gatherum, igggon an oniJiULm gatherum, thus distracting 
attention and dissipating effort. We have recently wit- 
nessed performances, called " reading " in the school 
program, which were a medley of exercises with transi- 
tions that would have seemed ridiculous if they had not 
been so skillfully manipulated. A reading exercise that 
devotes five minutes to actual reading and twenty-five 
minutes to other things is not an ideal drill in reading, 
whatever else may be its merit. 

It is not meant that the reading exercise should be so 
closely limited to the interpretation of the text as to 

Preparatory CXCludc all Othcr information. On the con- 
instruction, trary, it may be well to approach the reading 
of a piece of literature by an interesting sketch of the 
author, some account of his other literary productions, 
the circumstances under which the piece was written, if 
of special interest, the author's purpose in writing it, 
and whatever else may interest pupils m the selection and 
otherwise assist them in its intelHgent study. This pre- 
paratory instruction may be given in a separate exercise 
or it may be made an inspiring part of the lesson's assign- 



FIRST LESSONS IN READING. 209 

ment. There may also be special vocal drills to impart 
to the voice desired flexibility and power. But when 
the pupils come to the interpretation of the ^ 

^ ^ ^ Concentra- 

text, to its actual reading, everything should tion of 
be excluded except the author's meaning and ^"^"*'°"- 
its proper expression. The process of reading is neces- 
sarily limited to what is read, and on this the attention 
must be focused. The reading of a piece of good litera- 
ture should be clean and fruitful work. 

Books for use in teaching the art of reading, espe- 
cially in the higher grades, should largely represent 
the literature of power rather than the litera- school 
ture of knowledo^e. Such literature not only Readers 

o J the best 

touches more vitally the sources of mental Literature, 
and spiritual life, but it affords the best possible training 
in oral expression. The use of books of information or 
science as school readers has not been successful. The 
so-called science readers, geographical readers, natural 
history readers, and the like, have a small use even as 
supplementary readers. The use of even histories as 
readers has not been satisfactory, though history is rich 
in human interest. The pupil should come under the 
ennobUng influence of the best literature early in the 
school course, and, increasingly, he should be responsive 
to its humanizing power. 



ART OF TEACHING — I4 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LANGUAGE TRAINING. 

Guiding Principles. 

The art of language is the most fundamental and 
practical of the school arts. It follows that the teach- 
ing of this art, which is begun in the nursery and con- 
tinued in the kindergarten, should be a central aim of 
the elementary school. 

When children enter the primary school at say six 

years of age, they have many ideas, a considerable 

Language vocabulary of words, and more or less abil- 

FirstTi^o ^^y ^^ express what they know and feel in 

Years. words, phrascs, and sentences. The first 

two years in the primary school should largely increase 

their store of ideas and facts, their usable vocabulary, 

and their ability to express their knowledge by language. 

To this end, there should be well-directed and persistent 

training in the use of language in the primary school. 

This training in language should make clear and 
definite the ideas expressed by the words used ; should 
give the pupils the mastery of these words as 
attained and souuds and forms ; and the teaching of knowl- 
Exercises. q^^q should, as far as possible, end in its clear 
expression by the pupils. The daily exercises of the 
primary school, the first year especially, should include 
conversations using freely the incidents of child life : 
talks about common things and experiences, the telling 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 211 

of stories of special interest to young children, the re- 
cital of little poems, the singing of child songs, the 
development of material for reading lessons, etc. These 
and other simple exercises may be made fine training in 
the power of oral expression. 

In the latter part of the first year pupils, especially 
if not admitted until they are six, may begin to write 
words and short sentences, and during the 
second year they may have increasing prac- 
tice (not too much) in writing sentences and paragraphs, 
thus acquiring some skill in the use of the simplest writ- 
ten forms of English. 

The first two years of school may thus afford children 
an admirable training in telling what they know and 
feel, the vital art, and may increasingly union of 
give them practice in writino^. All this Ian- language 

^ r & and other 

guage training may be so united with the Exercises, 
other exercises of the school as to be a part of them, 
thus practically realizing the principle of concentration. 
This union is eminently practicable in the exercises in 
reading; the exercises in expression affording material 
for reading, and the development of reading lessons 
affording fine practice in oral expression. Indeed, the 
telling of what one knows and feels and the reading of 
thought and feeling expressed in written language are 
but different phases of the same mental process. 

Every exercise of the primary school that leads to 
knowledge properly ends in the expression 
of such knowledge by the pupils. This is should end in 
true of the lessons in nature, on human life, ^^p''"^'^"- 
morals and manners, etc. When training in expression 
is the end, it is a mistake to let even a story exercise 
end with the telling of the story by the teacher. This 



212 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

may interest and please the pupils, may make a desired 
impression, but the vital matter is reached when the 
story is retold by the pupils. It is what children can 
tell that is evidence of real appropriation. 

The emphasis has been laid above on oi^al expression, 

and this for the reason that facility in speech is much 

Th T more important in early training than written 

before the cxpresslou. There should be comparatively 

^^"" little writing the first two years of school. 
In all primary training in language the tongue should 
go before the pen. 

If the training in expression in the primary school is 
skillful and abundant, the pupils will come up to the 
^_ . ^ third school year with a famiHar vocabulary 

Attainments •' J 

in Two of several hundred words, with a good degree 
Years. ^^ facility in telling what they know, and 
with some skill in writing sentences and simple para- 
graphs. Nor are these mean attainments in language at 
this early age. On the contrary, they are a good begin- 
ning in the learning of this difficult but important art. 

It is here conceded that this concurrent training in 
expression should be continued throughout the school 

led course, every exercise being made a training 

Training not in exprcssion. But this is not enough. This 

Sufficient, incidental training needs to be supplemented 
by exercises which make clear and facile expression 
their chief end and purpose. ** The common child," 
says Dr. Hinsdale, ** will not pick up the elementary 
school arts by the way without his knowledge, but he 
must consciously learn them." ^ This is especially true 
of the art of language. The pupil may acquire and ought 
to acquire a fair degree of facility in expression in con- 

1 " The Language Arts," p. 53. 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 21 3 

nection with other school exercises, but the highest 
facility can be attained only by practice in which the 
atte7ition is focused on expressio?i. 

It follows that the school course should provide 
separate exercises in language, and these exercises 
should have as resrular a place in the daily 

^ r J Separate 

program as the arts of reading and num- Language 
ber, arts which require progressive practice ^^«''<='ses. 
during most of the elementary course. The art of 
language is more difficult than reading or numerical 
computation, and it should certainly have as large a 
place in the elementary school. // should be a daily 
exercise. Nor does the fact that every teaching exer- 
cise should be made a training in expression do away 
with the necessity of separate language exercises, exer- 
cises specially devoted to training in the facile use of 
language. Every oral exercise should be a training in 
vocal expression, but this cannot take the place of the 
reading exercise. Nor should separate exercises in lan- 
guage lessen the attention given to expression in the 
other school exercises. What is needed is both inci- 
dental and regular training in expression, conscientious 
language training all along the line. There is no 
danger that the important art of language will receive 
too much attention in school training. 

Since the Council's '' Committee of Ten " emphasized 
so strongly (not too strongly) the importance of inci- 
dental language training, it has become the Formal 
fashion to discredit what is characterized as Exercises. 
*' formal " language exercises. It is claimed that facility 
in language is best acquired by its use in connection 
with other school exercises, and much stress is laid upon 
** extemporaneous composition." The '' Harvard Com- 



214 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

mittee on Composition " urges that by daily and inces- 
sant practice pupils should early acquire that degree 
of facility in writing that will enable " the student or 
adult to use it as a tool in his work." 

This is true, but it should be specially noted that this 
facility is never acquired by careless writing, by writ- 
ing in an extemporaneous fashion, much below one's 
Facility not ability. In no art is skill increased by prac- 
acquired by ^j^^ ^j^^^ -^ ^gio^ q^c's powcr and skill. On 

Careless ^ 

Writing. the contrary, practice that is below one's 
ability lessens skill. It begets the habit of indifferent 
effort, and in language this is fatal. It is only by doing 
one's best in expression that the power to do better is 
acquired. 

In the past few years there has been a large increase 
in the amount of written work required of pupils in 
grammar and high schools, as written les- 
written SOUS, Written outlines, written reviews, etc., 
^""^^^ and much of this written work is of the 
" extemporaneous " sort (p. 169). But little of it compar- 
atively passes under the eye of the teacher, and much 
of it is written with small effort at the best expression. 
It is possible that this careless written work in prepara- 
tory schools may be responsible for some of the low 
attainments in English that so puzzle the Harvard 
examiners. Experience shows that written work is likely 
to be careless and imperfect when the subject-matter 
absorbs thought and attention. Take, for illustration, 
the notebooks of students, or even of teachers at insti- 
tutes or summer schools. The attention of the note 
takers is absorbed in the lesson or lecture and the 
points worthy to be noted, and as a result Httle thought 
is given to expression or the correct use of written 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 21$ 

forms, as the notebooks plainly show. It is evident 
that such practice can contribute httle to one's skill 
and accuracy in the use of written language. 
These facts suggest that the written work writing 
required of pupils, especially in elementary Necessary, 
schools, should be kept within the limits of careful 
zvriting. An excessive early use of writing as a *' tool " 
dulls the tool and lessens the probability of its skillful 
use in college or adult Hfe. 

These and other reasons that need not be stated show 
that the art of language should be given a regular place 
in the daily program of the elementary school, Language 
and that the training therein should be as should have 
systematic and skillful as in any other branch, piace^hi^the 
To this end, these language exercises cannot Program, 
be tethered to exercises in other studies. They must 
have an aim and a progress of their own. It is true 
that there are lessons in several school studies that 
afford excellent material for an exercise in expression, 
oral and written.^ It is fine training for pupils to put 
what they have learned on any subject into the best 
possible EngUsh ; but, to attain this result, their attention 
must be focused on the expression, and not on the 
knowledge to be expressed. 

As a further introduction to the more fundamental 
study of language training, which is to follow, it may be 
suggested that, for this training, the twelve 

° Division of 

years of school may properly be divided into school 
two equal periods of six years each. The first ^^"0'^- 
six years are to be devoted to synthetic training in the 
art of language ; and to this training are to be added, 

1 The use of written language should have a small place in number 
exercises. The analysis of problems should be oral. 



2l6 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

during the next six years, the study of English gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and Hterature. As is seen, this scheme 
postpones the study of technical grammar, or the sci- 
ence of language, to the seventJi school year. 
Technical Experience fully shows that this is sufficiently 
Grammar, gg^j-jy |-q begin a study that belongs to the 
same school period as algebra. When the study is 
begun, it should be taught in a scientific manner. All 
mixing of unrelated exercises should be avoided. 

In the old regime the chief reliance in teaching lan- 
guage above the third school year, reading and speUing 
excepted, was English grammar; and the chief 

Grammar in ^ . . ., 

the Old aim of grammar instruction was to give pupils 
Regime. ^ knowledge of the classification of words, 
the structure of the sentence, and the relation of words 
therein. The means to these ends were definitions, 
rules, parsing, and analysis, and later the correction of 
" false syntax." This study of technical grammar was 
spread over a period of four to five years, being often 
begun as early as the fourth school year. 

As a means of preparing pupils to pass examinations 
in grammar, this training answered its purpose reason- 
ably well, especially when the tests were grooved to the 
text-book and did not call for the exercise of much judg- 
ment or analytic power. The most satisfactory results 
were attained during the last two years. But the more 
Language thoughtful and obscrving teachers began to 
Results of j-eaiize that this pframmar drill, whatever its 

Grammar '^ 

Drills. value in other directions, was not giving pupils 
promised skill in the use of language. The fact slowly 
dawned that it is not the function of EngHsh grammar 
'' to teach the art of speaking and writing the EngHsh 
language with propriety," as taught by Lindley Murray, 



LANGUAGE DRAINING. 2\J 

an error fully disclosed by Professor Whitney in the 
preface to his " Essentials of English Grammar." 

It is conceded that the study of English grammar at 
the proper age has great value as a means of training 
the analytic judgment, of developing the 
power to interpret language, and of estab- study of 
lishing a standard for the correction of errors ^'■3'""^^'^- 
in one's own speech and in that of others ; but it has 
little or no help for the young pupil in acquiring the 
art of expressing with facility what he knows, the one 
important result of language training the first six years 
of school. English grammar has an important function 
in school training, and no other study can take its 
place.^ But it is not a child's study. "As grammar 
was made after language," says Spencer, " so ought it 
to be taught after language." 

There are those who appeal to their own experience 
as proof of the correctness of Lindley Murray's concep- 
tion of the function of grammar, but they fail Appeals to 
to note that whatever advantage in speech Experience, 
came to them from the study of English grammar ap- 
peared in aditlt life. The writer is indebted to Lindley 
Murray and Kirkham for some of his little skill in the use 
of correct English, but this help came to him from the 
study of grammar after he was sixteen, not in childhood.^ 

1 " Grammar is the form that logic assumes in the interpretation or con- 
struction of language, and so is the only strictly logical study with which 
most persons who attend school ever form a practical acquaintance." — 
Hinsdale's "The Language Arts," p. 159. 

2 " Grammar has its part to contribute, but rather in the higher than in 
the lower stages of the work. One must be a somewhat reflective user of 
language to amend even here and there a point by grammatical reasons, 
and no one ever changed from a bad speaker to a good one by applying 
the rules of grammar to what he said." — W. D, Whitney in " Essentials 



2l8 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Ends and Principles. 

We now squarely face the definite question, What 

should be the nature of language training during the 

first six years of school ? In seeking a prac- 

Nature of ■' . • i • i 

Language tical answcr to this question, let us consider 
Training. ^ j ^ ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ attained by such training ; 

(2) the principles that must be observed; and (3) the 
materials and methods to be used. Fortunately, mod- 
ern school experience sheds a clear light on each of 
these points. 

I. Ends to be Attained. 

In no other branch of study is a knowledge of the 
ends to be attained more important than in language, 
Grammar ^ud in uo othcr brauch is a wrong end more 
Delusion, subvcrsive of effort. EngHsh grammar, as 
heretofore intimated, was long taught under the delu- 
sion that its mastery gives the learner skill and accu- 
racy in the use of language, and this was often held out 
as an enticing reward for its early study. When the 
so-called ''language lessons" supplanted grammar in 
Language the lowcr gradcs of school, the majority of 
Lessons, tcachcrs lookcd upon these lessons as simply 
a new method of teaching grammar, and grammatical 
accuracy in speech and writing was still made the con- 
scious end of effort. Pupils were drilled in the recog- 
nition of " action words," " object words," " quality 
words," *' relation words," etc., with later drills on the 
number and case forms of nouns and pronouns, the 
active and passive forms of verbs, with exercises in 
changing and patching sentences, in fiUing blanks, in 
putting given words into sentences, etc. ; and the aim 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 219 

of all this patchwork was to introduce the pupil to 
English grammar, and thus to guard him against the 
use of false syntax. 

Moreover, authors kindly came to the assistance of 
teachers in the new method of teaching grammar. 
Nearly every author of a text-book on 8:ram- 

■' •' *^ Language 

mar wrote an introductory grammar with the Lesson 
specious title of " Language Lessons." The ^^""^'s- 
general plan of most of these numerous manuals is essen- 
tially the same. They present a recurring series of cut- 
feed lessons in grammar, with just enough real language 
work to make the deception complete. They begin 
with exercises in patching sentences, filHng blanks, etc. ; 
next pass to drills in " simplified " grammar, and then 
give a little synthetic work ; and thus sentence twisting, 
diluted grammar, and composition are mixed to the end 
of the dreary course. 

It is thus seen that even the so-called language lessons 
in the schools have widely faced grammar ; and, so far 
as they have touched the art of language. Language 
their central aim has been to secure gram- ^^^^"e^ *° 
niatical accuracy in speech and writing. What- Facility, 
ever may be true of the grammar results of these lessons, 
they have failed to give satisfactory skill in the art of 
expression. What is needed is to turn language train- 
ing in elementary schools right about, and make it face, 
not grammar, but facility in the practical use of lan- 
guage as a means of expression. 

The first and chief end to be attained in elementary 
language training is : 

I. Facility in the expression of one's knowledge. 

The new word in teaching the art of language, which 
needs ''to be writ large," is FACILITY. The coveted 



220 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

end of such training is the facile expression of what one 
knows and feels and wills, and this includes clearness, 
Facility First forcc, and, increasingly, elegance. Grammati- 

^"'^- cal accuracy is picked up by the way. It is 
the result of example and imitation, and hence cannot 
be directly taught a child. *' Good habits of speech are 
caught rather than taught," says Professor March, our 
great EngHsh scholar. ''The normal child," says Dr. 
Hinsdale, "who is accustomed to good Enghsh, and 
nothing else, uses good EngHsh." 

But the pupil is also to learn the art of expressing his 

knowledge by writing ; and this involves spelling, the 

use of capitals, punctuation, the use of quota- 

of Written tiou marks, paragraphing, etc., that is, the 

Forms. skillful usc of the zuritten forms of language. 
It is to be specially noted that the attainment here 
needed is not simply a knowledge of these written 
forms, but skill in their nse. It follows that the second 
important end to be attained in language training is : 

II. Skill in the use of the written forms of one's 
mother tongue. 

It is thus seen that the two fundamental ends to be 
TheTw attained in language training in elementary 

Guiding schools are: (i) facility ifi the expression of 

^^^^' one's knowledge, and (2) skill in using written 
forjns. Other results may be important, but these are 
fundamental and essential. 

2. Principles to be Observed. 

How can these ends be attained } This inquiry brings 
us back to the fundamental question. How can power 
and skill be trained? This question is fully answered 
in the second and third laws of teaching (pp. 39, 48). 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 221 

The several powers are trained only by occasioning their 
appropriate activity, and each power is trained Laws of 
by its own activity ; not by the activity of Teaching, 
another power. It follows from these principles that 
analytic power is trained only by analytic activity and 
syntJietic power only by synthetic activity. 

But speech and writing are synthetic processes, not an- 
alytic, and hence the art of language can be trained only 
by syntJictic activity^ that is, by the expression ^rt of 
of one's ideas and thoughts in words. What Language 

. . ,, (. trained only 

is true of oral expression is equally true of by synthetic 
written. Skill in the use of the written forms Activity, 
of language is not acquired by learning formal rules, 
but by actual practice in writing the mother tongue. 

We thus reach the one guiding principle in language 
training, to wit : 

TJie art of laiiguage can be acquired only by practice 
in the expression of one's knowledge under guidance and 
stimulation. 

Both reason and experience attest the correctness of 
this principle. All experience shows that skill in the 
use of language is acquired only by continued and 
progressive practice in the clear and forceful expres- 
sion of what one thinks and feels. 

It follows that language exercises in elementary 
schools should be syntJietic, affording pupils fruitful 
practice in the expression of their thoughts Language 
and feelings. Exercises in which pupils re- fho^^i^^be 
peat the expression of another's knowledge synthetic, 
contribute little to their abiHty to express their own 
knowledge. The first and essential requisite in the 
expression of knowledge is a clear grasp of the knowl- 
edge to be expressed. The pupil who knows nothing 



222 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

cannot come into either power or skill by attempts to 
say it ! " Language and thought are one," says Max 
Miiller. Certainly, the possession of knowledge is 
essential to its expression. 

The first step in language training is to help the 
pupil to knowledge to express, and hence every ele- 
First step mcutary lesson in language is primarily a 
Knowledge, knowledge lesson. The next step is the ex- 
pression of the knowledge acquired. This touches 
the weakness of the language work in many schools. 
It requires the expression of knowledge in the absence 
of knowledge to express, and is thus a parallel of the 
folly of the Egyptian taskmaster who required bricks to 
be made without straw. More than half of the teacher's 
efforts in language lessons in primary schools should be 
given to the developing of the ideas and thoughts to be 
expressed. Knowledge clearly grasped begets an impulse 
for its expression. Clearness and fullness of knowledge 
make clear and full expression possible. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

LANGUAGE TRAINING {Contmned). 
Materials and Methods. 

The training in language the first two years, particu- 
larly the first year, has been quite fully indicated in the 
preceding chapter. It remains to consider the nature 
of language exercises to the sixth year inclusive, and 
the methods of training to be used. 

These language exercises should not only be daily, as 
already shown, but they should also be as well graded 
and as proo-j^essive as the lessons in arithme- , 

-' '-' Language 

tic, or any other branch. They should in- Exercises 
crease in fullness and scope from year to year, P^°g'"^ss'^^- 
new elements being introduced as pupils acquire the 
power to use them. One of the common faults of much 
language work is its continuance on a dead level, pupils 
in the second year being given nearly the same exercises 
as those in the fourth or fifth year. It is not possible 
to sustain interest in the same language work from year 
to year. Pupils must be conscious of progress in any 
art, and this is eminently true in the art of expression. 
The exercises in language must also afford a iieedftU 
variety of practice. A true language course embodies 
each year all the fundamental disciplines in ^. „ . 

•' ^ ^ Five Series 

expression. The best school experience of 

shows that there are five series of exercises ^"'■"ses. 
that most fully meet this condition. These are Observa- 

223 



224 ^^^ ^^^ OF TEACHING. 

tion exercises, Pictw^e exercises, Story exercises. Letter 
writing, and Dictation exercises ; the first four being 
synthetic, and the fifth teaching the written forms of 
language by example. There are other language exer- 
cises that have value, but the five series given above 
afford the several disciplines in language most needed 
and most fruitful in the lower grades of school. Their 
practical value has been widely attested. 

These different series of exercises may be so correlated 
each year as to afford desired variety of practice, and, 
Division of at the same time, to give the best possible 
^hltrpJuT*^ training in each series. This is accomplished 
Periods. by dividing the school year into four equal 
periods, and then devoting the first period to observation 
exercises, the second to pictures, the third to stories, 
and the fourth to letters. Dictation drills to impart 
skill in the use of written forms may be interspersed 
throughout the year as needed. Several weeks each 
year, not necessarily in succession, may profitably be 
devoted yearly to these exercises in dictation. 

One advantage in the division of the year among the 
four synthetic series, as suggested above, is the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded to both teachers and 

Advantages -' 

of Four pupils to acquire a fair degree of skill in one 
Periods. ggj-igg before turning to another. There are 
few teachers who can give lessons in all these series in 
a miscellaneous way, a lesson to-day on a flower, to-mor- 
row on a picture, the next day on a story, and so on. 
The experience of Cincinnati and other cities shows 
that it requires about two months for most teachers to 
become reasonably skillful in presenting any one of 
these series of exercises. The same is true of the pupils. 
It takes them several weeks to acquire a fair degree of 



Language training. 225 

skill in any one series as given in a grade. Of course 
a year's practice in one series would give higher skill 
than two months' practice, but continuing in Needed skiii 
any one series for a year would be attended t^^s 
with a serious loss of interest, and a sacrifice ^'^^"""^ • 
of needed variety of discipline. The best results, the 
entire course considered, are attained when pupils turn 
from one series to another every eight or ten weeks. 
The interest is thus readily sustained, and each year 
affords training in all of these important disciplines — 
a training that rises in difficulty from year to year. 

The outline on the next page presents a course of syn- 
thetic exercises in language that embodies the foregoing 
suggestions. 

It will be seen from this outline that each year is 
divided equally among the four synthetic series, the first 
being devoted to observation lessons, the sec- Explanation 
ond to pictures, the third to stories, and the °f outline, 
fourth to letters. The exercises in each series rise from 
the second year to the sixth inclusive, those in the fourth 
year being fuller than in the third, and those in the sixth 
year fuller than in the fifth. 

The character of the exercises in each series will be 
made plain by a brief description, with sug- character of 
gestions as to methods of presentation. Exercises. 

I. Observation. — The observation lessons for the sec- 
ond year may be devoted to common objects, to actions 
observed by the pupils, etc. The facts ob- object 
served by the pupils are first expressed orally. Lessons, 
pains being taken to secure good expression, and the 
sentences as reached are written by the teacher on the 
board in one paragraph. The written exercise may then 
be read, the spelling, capitals, etc., noted, and then be 

ART OF TEACHING — I5 



226 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 





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LANG UA GE TRAINING. 



227 



copied by the pupils on slate or paper. By comparing 
their written exercises with the teacher's on the board 
the pupils will see their errors. The paragraph on the 
board should now be erased or covered and then be 
rewritten by the pupils. 

In three or four weeks the pupils will be able to tell, at 
the close of the oral exercise, all the facts observed, and 
then to write the same on slate or paper, the The written 
teacher now writing the exercise on the board Exercise, 
for comparison of the pupils' written work. Care should 
be taken to lead the pupils to tell well the facts learned, 
and all new words should, as they occur, be written on 
the board, the aim being to secure correct spelling from 
the first. After its correction by comparison the exer- 
cise should be rewritten by the pupils. The exercise 
should be written in a paragraph, and words at the end 
of a line should, when necessary, be " divided on a syl- 
lable." These first steps in the use of written forms 
should be very carefully taken. 

The observation lessons of the third and fourth years 
are properly devoted to the study of animals and plants, 
the animal or plant studied being in some Nature Les- 
f orm present. These lessons may be so ar- ^°"^ '" '^^''■'^ 

, . -' and Fourth 

ranged as to give pupils an intelligent Intro- Years, 
duction to the study of nature. The pupils should 
not be asked to write what they cannot tell well, 
and so special attention should be given to proper oral 
expression of the facts learned, singly and finally to- 
gether. All new words should be written as they occur 
on the board, and care should be taken to avoid the use 
of many scientific terms. The facts of common observa- 
tion, rather than scientific, should constitute these les- 
sons. The written work of the pupils should be corrected 



228 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

in the time set apart for the language exercise, and 
chiefly by means of one or two of the pupils' exercises 
reproduced on the board. After correction the exercise 
should be rewritten with care by the pupils, and then 
again rewritten if this be necessary to secure desired 
excellence. The lessons in the fourth year may be more 
extensive than those in the third year. 

The exercises in this series for the fifth and sixth years 
are based largely on prior observation and experience. 
Fifth and ^.ud relate to objects or phenomena more or 
Sixth Years, jggs knowu by the pupils. The study of the 
objects desired is indicated by questions dictated or writ- 
ten on the board, and copied by the pupils. Suppose, 
for example, that the object to be described is snow. 
The facts to be known and expressed are indi- 

An Example. i i • i 

cated by say eight or ten questions arranged m 
proper order. The answers to these questions are to be 
prepared in writing and brought to the class at the next 
period for review. So much of the time as may be 
necessary is devoted to a study of the pupils' written 
answers, with special reference to the accuracy of the 
facts given and the manner of their expression. If this 
review be properly conducted, the pupils will know 
many facts about snow, and will have had helpful train- 
ing in their clear expression. They are now prepared 
to write an intelligent description of snow.^ 

The next period may be devoted to the correction of 

the written papers, and this may be done as previously 

Correction indicated, or by the review of one or more 

of Papers, papers with pupils in groups observing the 

same. The purpose of this criticism by the teacher is 

1 It is believed that " Brookfield's Composition " first presented this method 
of teaching composition to pupils who have had httle practice in v^^riting. 



LANGUAGE TRAINIMG. 229 

not so much to perfect the present papers as to enable 
the pupils to be more accurate and skillful /;/ tJic next 
exercise y the true object of all correction of the written 
work of pupils. The subjects of rain, dew, frost, fog, 
clouds, day and night, change of seasons, winter, sum- 
mer, fall, spring, harvest time, etc., will afford other 
interesting exercises. 

2. Pictures. — Children Hke to see pictures and talk 
about them, this being especially true when their efforts 
at talking are encouraged and helped. The pj^^^^^^ ^^ 
question, "What does Eddie see in the pic- Language 
ture 1 " is sure to focus sight and unloose the ^^"°"s- 
tongue. Pictures appeal not only to the eye, but also 
to the imagination, and hence are a source of unfailing 
delight to children. They are the charm of nursery 
prints and the primer, and contribute much to the enjoy- 
ments of child Hfe. Not only do pictures give pleasure, 
but their study trains the power of observation, kindles 
the fancy, and cultivates a taste for the beautiful. They 
also stimulate expression, and afford admirable material 
for its training. These facts explain the prominence 
given to pictures in elementary courses in language. 

The use of pictures the first school year should be 
free and varied. They may be made the basis of exer- 
cises in conversation and reading, and in ^^^ ^^ p.^ 
various ways may enter into other exercises, tures First 
In the second year they may be used in a '^^^ ^^^" 
more definite manner. The first aim now is to teach 
pupils to see a picture, to see first what is essential and 
then the related details. This observation is readily 
directed by questions, and in a few weeks young pupils 
will acquire a good degree of skill in seeing pictures. 
The facts thus learned, told in proper order, constitute 



230 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



a simple description of a picture as aft object of sight. 
The tendency of children to read their fancies into pic- 
tures should not be encouraged until they have acquired 
fair skill in seeing what is actually represented. 




When the pupils have acquired reasonable faciHty in 
telling what they see in a given picture, they should 
Written then write the same on slate or paper. If 
Exercises. ^11 ucw words are written on the board when 
used, there will be few misspelled words in the written 
exercises. As a means of correcting errors, the teacher 
should write the exercise as a paragraph on the board, 
writing sentence after sentence as given by the pupils, 
special attention being given to margins, spelling, capi- 
tals, punctuation, division of words at end of line, etc. 
When a comparison of the pupils' work, under the 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 



231 



teacher's guidance, has been made, the exercise on the 
board should be erased or covered, and the exercise 
rewritten by the pupils. Care should be taken in the 
selection of pictures. Chromos will be found prefer- 
able to prints in this grade. 

In the third and fourth years pictures should be used 
that appeal to the imagination, and their study made to 
include not only what is seen bv the eve but 

. , , < , •' ^ Third and 

also what the mnid sees. To simple descrip- Fourth 
tion will thus be added what may be imagined, 



Years. 




and this will give new interest to the study and increased 
facility, and elegance to expression. The imagination, as 
well as the observation of the pupils, may be guided 
and stimulated, and the exercise may thus have unity. 
Needed practice in oral expression should precede the 
written exercise. This should be corrected as indicated 
under observation lessons (p. 227), and the reviewing of 
the exercise should help secure accuracy and skill in the 
use of written forms. 



232 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



In the fifth and sixth years pictures may be made the 
basis of stories in which the imagination has free play. 
The effort of the pupils is not simply to see the picture 
but to read or interpret it. The facts now to be ex- 
Fifth and pressed are those which the mind sees in the 
Sixth Years, picture, and experience shows that the im- 
agination readily responds to skillful training. The 




pictures used for the purpose should be those that tell 
a story; and in the fifth year the story told should be 
obvious. 

The picture above was once given as a test exercise to 
several thousand pupils of the sixth grade. They were 
asked to write a story suggested by the picture, and to 
locate the scene where there are pine forests and much 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 233 

snow in winter. Thirty minutes were allowed for the 
study of the picture, noting the outlines of the story, 
etc., and then one hour was given for the writing of it. 
The result of the test was gratifying evidence of the 
pupils' attainments. 

Stories. — The story has a prominent place in the 
modern primary school. It has special value as a means 
of training the power of expression. To this stories in 
end, it is not enough that stories are told or ^'"^^^ '^«"- 
read to children ; tJiey must be told by tJiem. In the 
first school year, the pupils should learn a few choice 
stories by heart, and be trained to tell them well. If 
the stories are properly selected, taught, and used, they 
will increase the children's vocabulary, and add to their 
facility in talking. It is, however, a mistake to tell 
young children too many stories. When a story is well 
learned, it may be written neatly on the board and used 
as a reading lesson, much to the delight of the little 
ones. 

In the second year, the pupils should not only tell 
the story, but, when this can be done well, they should 
write it as neatly as possible. This is an 

Second Year. 

excellent way to teach the written forms of 
language. All new words in the story should be writ- 
ten on the board as the story is learned. At first it may 
be weirfor the teacher to write the story on the board, 
calling attention to the spelling, use of capitals, punctu- 
ation, and other written forms. The story on the board 
may be erased or covered, and then be written by the 
pupils on slate or paper. The pupils' story may now 
be compared sentence by sentence with the story on 
the board, and then be rewritten by the pupils. It is 
easy to awaken in children a lively interest in this writ- 



234 ^^^^ ^RT OF TEACHING. 

ten work, with increasing skill in the use of written 
forms. 

Special care should be taken in the selection of stories 
thus to be memorized. They should be worthy of a 
Selection placc in the child's memory. Several of 
of stories. x\iQ storics memorized and repeated the first 
year and used as reading lessons, may be used as a 
language exercise in the second year. In two months 
as many as ten stories may be used as written exer- 
cises. 

In the third and fourth years, the stories read or told 

by the teacher are to be reproduced by the pupils. The 

Reproduc- brief story is first to be told or read by the 

tion by teacher in the most interesting manner pos- 

Questions in *^ ^^ 

Third Year, slblc, and thc pupils are called upon to give, 
in answer to questions, the name of the story, the first 
incident, the second, the third, and so on, until the story 
is reproduced. One or more pupils are then called 
upon to tell the entire story ; and, when this can be 
done well, the pupils write it on slate or paper. No 
two of the pupils will use precisely the same words, but 
all will reproduce the story with a fair degree of accu- 
racy. One or two of the pupils' reproductions may be 
copied by them on the board, and used for the correction 
of the written work of the class. 

In the fourth year stories may be reproduced in writ- 
ing without the oral reproduction by incidents, as in 
Reproduc- the third year ; but it will usually be wise to 
tion in ^gu ^j. j.^^^ ^^ story more than once. It 

Fourth -' 

Year. rcquircs a degree of attention and memory 
rarely possessed by young pupils to reproduce a story, 
even a very short one, on hearing it only once. Be- 
sides, nothing is gained by overforcing the attention at 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 235 

SO early an age. The reproduction of stories may be 
made a most efficient training in expression, and espe- 
cially in acquiring skill in the use of written forms. 

In the fifth and sixth years stories may be written 
from analyses or outUnes which suggest the main inci- 
dents. Care must be taken to select stories stories from 
not already known by the pupils, but it is ^"jt^l^nd" 
not necessary that the stories be original, sixth Years. 
Literature abounds in choice stories that may be 
used for the purpose. The outlines may be writ- 
ten in sentences or may be largely expressed by 
words and phrases. A little practice will enable a 
teacher to prepare these outlines intelligently. They 
afford pupils most excellent training in the invention 
of details as well as in writing a story in choice lan- 
guage. 

The following analysis of a fable was used by the late 
Professor T. E. SuHot, formerly of Paris, „ , 

' ^ ' Professor 

who in his day was a very skillful teacher suwot's 
of English composition. It was given to outime. 
a class of students in a preparatory school : 

1 . During the reign of the Emperor Augustus a dolphin formed 
an attachment for a boy, the son of a poor man. 

2. The boy fed the dolphin with bits of bread. 

3. Every day the dolphin swam to the surface of the water. 

4. The dolphin was called by the boy and received his usual 
meal. 

5. The dolphin is said to have carried the boy on his back from 
the seaport to a school in Puteoli, bringing him back in the same 
manner. 

6. After a time the boy grew sick and died. 

7. The dolphin came daily to the usual place, but missed his kind 
companion, 

8. The dolphin died of grief. 



236 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

The following outlines of a story were given as a 
test exercise to about three thousand pupils in the sixth 
grade in the Cincinnati schools : 

THE FORGIVEN DEBT. 

Boston merchant ; much business with Cape Cod fishermen ; 
fishermen often have bad luck ; not able to pay debts. 

Merchant dies without will ; three sons ; the elder made adminis- 
trator ; finds among his father's papers a package of unpaid bills, 
with written request that they be burned. Meeting of brothers ; 
they agree ; make a list of the debtors ; burn the bills. 

Old fisherman calls at elder brother's office ; wishes to pay a debt 
long since due ; saved a little money each year ; has now $500. 

The son looks over list ; finds the old man's name ; tells him debt 
is canceled ; fisherman begs to pay at least a part ; son will take 
nothing. 

Old fisherman's gratitude ; returns home with light heart ; joy in 
family. 

Letters. — The ability to write a well expressed and 

neatly written letter is a very important acquisition, 

one that should receive careful attention in 

Importance 

of Letter school training. The fact that many pupils 
Writing, leave school before the sixth school year 
makes it important that early training in letter writing 
be provided. As early as the close of the fourth school 
year, pupils as a class should be able to write a credit- 
able letter. It is true that this will require much instruc- 
tion and practice, but this is just the training which the 
school should provide. 

Training in letter writing should begin with the writing 
Series of of simplc notcs, first without date and later 
Exercises. ^N\\)c^ date, and, as early as the third school 
year, it should pass to the writing of complete letters. 

For full directions as to the teaching of letter writ- 
ing, the reader is referred to manuals on the subject. 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 



237 



It must suffice to say that special attention should be 
given to the dating, salutation, signing, folding, address- 
ing, etc. ; and, what is even more important, 
to the subject matter. The writer of a letter ^"^^^'''°"''- 
should have something to write, a message to communi- 
cate ; and this will often need careful development. 
A letter is a pen talk with another person, and as such 
it affords an opportunity for the free and natural expres- 
sion of one's thoughts and feelings. The letter is the 
simplest of original written productions. 

In the fifth and sixth school years attention is properly 
given to social and business correspondence. Some good 
material for business letters and papers will be furnished 
by the exercises in arithmetic. 

Dictation. — The object of these exercises is to make 
pupils familiar with the written forms of English and 
skillful in their use. In the sixties General Dictation 
Garfield and the writer Hstened to an insti- Exercises, 
tute lecture in which some fifteen rules of spelHng were 
presented and illustrated. At the close of the lecture, 
the General turned and said, "That is interesting as 
information, but did any one ever learn to spell by rule } " 
Certainly no child ever thus learned to spell, and what 
is true of spelling is true of the use of capitals, punctua- 
tion points, abbreviations, quotation marks, and other 
written forms. It is in the continued and progressive 
use of these forms that pupils come to know them and 
to be skillful in their practical use in writing. 

The language lessons, heretofore sketched, afford 
pupils much practice in the use of English written 
forms, but this practice can readily be in- 
creased in efficiency by the wise use of dicta- '^''''^"*^^^^- 
tion exercises. One advantage of these exercises is the 



238 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

repetition of the more common forms which may thus be 
secured. The exercises may also be so graded as to 
introduce one form after another, thus furnishing needed 
practice and reaching desired skill. One dictated exer- 
cise a week for four years would, if properly graded, 
make elementary pupils familiar with the more common 
written forms of EngUsh. 

When the dictated exercises are written by the pupils, 
they should be written on the board as models for com- 
correction of parisou in the correction of the pupils' work. 
Exercises. Jq gg^yg ^jj^g j^ class, the cxerciscs may be 
written in advance on the board and covered, or, what 
is better, may be written on sheets of paper of suitable 
size. After correction the exercises should be rewritten 
by the pupils to attain desired accuracy. 

We give below a few exercises as examples of the 

dictation work that may be made a part of language 

training. These exercises are suitable for 

xampes. ^^^^^.^j^ ^^^ ^£^l^ ^^^^ pupils ; and, the last 

possibly excepted, may be used as early as the third 
year. 

Cleveland, O., Nov. 22, 1900. 

My dear Mother : — We had a very pleasant ride on the cars, 
and reached the Union Station at 4 o'clock. Uncle Calvin met us 
at the train and took us home in his nice carriage. 

Most lovingly, 

Kate. 

" Aunt," said little Grace, " I have found a new key to unlock peo- 
ple's hearts." " What is this new key ? " asked her aunt. " It is," 
said Grace, " only one litde word, please.''^ 

A countryman at a hotel helped himself to his neighbor's melon. 
" That's cool," said the man. " Yes," said the countryman, " it must 
have been on ice." 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 239 

Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D., ex-president of Yale College, was the 
editor of " Webster's Unabridged Dictionary." Doctor Porter is 
the author of the so-called " Webster's Condensed Dictionary," an 
excellent dictionary for the schoolroom.^ 

The Rural School. 

It may properly be objected that the foregoing scheme 
of language training with six classes is not practicable 
in ungraded schools. In graded schools in Language 
cities and towns with one or, at most, two '^'■^l"'"^ '" 

' ' Rural 

classes in a room, there is time for this impor- schools, 
tant work, and it may be done in a satisfactory manner ; 
but it is clearly not possible for the teacher of an un- 
graded rural school to conduct daily five or more 
language exercises in addition to those in other branches. 
But the pupils in rural schools sadly need this training 
in language, and some way must be found to give it. 
We venture to submit a few suggestions which have 
been attested by the experience of many teachers. 

1. There should be no attempt in a rural school to 
teach writing (penmanship), language, and drawing to 

six or more separate classes. In any school 

11 T r . . , r Plan- 

term only three grades of practice in each of 

these arts is necessary. The same is true of vocal music. 

2. For the teaching of these arts, let the pupils of 
the rural school be divided into three sections, to wit : 
Primary, including say first and second year Three 
pupils ; Secondary, including third to fifth year sections, 
pupils ; and Advanced, including all pupils above the 
secondary. These three sections correspond to the three 
school departments in a district which contains a suiB- 

1 In dictating this exercise say, " Noah Porter, doctor of divinity, doctor 
of laws," etc., and require the pupils to write the abbreviations. 



240 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

cient number of pupils to employ three teachers, — one 
for the primary classes, another for the secondary, and a 
third for the more advanced.^ 

3. Let one period daily be devoted to the arts of lan- 
guage and writing, — three periods each week being 
Division of given to language and two to writing; say 

Time. Monday to language, Tuesday to writing, 
Wednesday to language, Thursday to writing, and Fri- 
day to language. If necessary, three periods each week 
may be given to language, one to writing, and one to 
drawing. 

The reader may not see how three sections or classes 
can be taught writing or language in the same period. 
Explanation but experience has solved this difficulty, and 
of Plan. many teachers are doing it successfully. 
Take, for illustration, writing. The pupils in the ad- 
vanced section will need most time for practice and 
those in the primary section the least, and so attention 
may be first given to the advanced section. Some five 
minutes of instruction will be sufficient to prepare the 
pupils for practice, and five minutes more will suffice to 
instruct the pupils in the secondary section. Needed 
attention can now be given to the primary section, leav- 
ing ten to fifteen minutes for their practice. The remain- 
ing time can be devoted to an inspection of the work 
in the several sections, the correction of observed errors, 
the giving of needed assistance, etc. 

A like course can be pursued in language, though 
the development of the knowledge to be expressed may 
require more time than is allowed above for prepara- 
tory instruction in writing. It is not necessary, however, 

1 For a full description of this division of a rural school into three sec- 
tions, see White's " School Management," pp. 86-94. 



LANGUAGE TRAINING. 



241 



to develop the three lessons in the same period The 
lesson developed orally to-day may be written by the 
pupils in the next language period. One section may 
at the begmning of a period rewrite a lesson corrected 
m the previous exercise, and so on. The ingenious 
teacher will find ways to keep three classes of pupils 
busy with profitable language work during the same 
period. 

4. The language exercises may be divided among the 
three sections as shown in the following outline 



Periods 


Exercises. 


Primary. 


Secondary. 


Advanced. 


First. 


Observation. 


Common ob- 
jects; actions 
observed, etc. 


Animals and 
plants. 


Descriptions 
from questions. 


Second. 


Pictures. 


Simple descrip- 
tion of pic- 
tures. 


Description of 
pictures, M'ith 
addition of 
what may be 
imagined. 


Stories based 
on pictures. 


Third. 


Stories. 


Brief stories 
from memory. 


Reproduction 
of stories. 


Stories written 
from outlines. 


Fourth. 


Letters. 


Simple notes 
and letters. 


Complete 
letters. 


Business letters 
and papers, 
social notes, 
etc. 




Dictation. 


Dictation exercises throughoi 
teach the -wriiten forms of langu£ 
capitals, punctuation, abbreviatic 
etc. They may begin with words 
and pass to paragraphs contai 
common abbreviations, quotations 


t the year to 
ige, as spelling, 
ns, quotations, 
and sentences, 
ning questions, 
, etc. 



ART OF TEACHING— 16 



CHAPTER XIX. 
ARITHMETIC. 

First Lessons in Number. 

In no other school art is philosophy less helpful to 

the teacher than in the primary lessons in number ; and 

Phiioso- yet nearly every new method of teaching 

phy and numbcr is heralded by the claim that it has a 

Number •' 

Methods, sure philosophic basis. This is an old trick 
in pedagogy, one that has been used in exploiting new- 
methods and devices in nearly every branch of instruc- 
tion. While the ordinary teacher gets no clear concep- 
tion of the principles proclaimed, he supposes that they 
must rest on bed-rock philosophy, and so gives a willing 
ear to the new method which promises to revolutionize 
the teaching art. In recent years much stress has been 
laid on the genesis and nature of number as the basis 
of a true method of teaching number to children. Fortu- 
nately, these facts fall in the domain of observation and 
experience, the chief function of philosophy here being 
to expose assumptions made in its name. 

In another place we have fully discussed these ques- 
First Num. tious,^ and it must suffice here to say that the 

ber Ideas, ideas of number first in the mind of the 
child and the race answer the question ''How inanyf 
They are occasioned by the phenomena of nature, or, 

1 " The Early Teaching of Number as Ratio," American Book Company, 
New York. 

242 



ARITIIMEriC. 243 

if preferred, by environment and subjective experience. 
The mind discriminates between one and more than one, 
and the idea of number arises. 

There is nothing in the child's environment or experi- 
ence that justifies the claim that the first ideas of number 
are occasioned by the measurement of concrete ^ot occa- 
maornitudes. There are not in all nature as sionedby 

^ '111- Quantitative 

it touches the child any two visible objects Measure- 
whose quantitative equality or ratio can be '"^"*- 
determined by observation, and certainly all subjective 
or psychical phenomena have no quantitative relations. 
Moreover the quantitative measurement of concrete mag- 
nitudes is not possible until artificial devices for such 
measurements are invented and used. These facts show 
that number ideas cannot have their origin in quantita- 
tive measurement, and that the numbers first in the 
child's mind do not and can not express quantitative 
relations. The child's first number ideas not only 
denote how many, but they are applied to numerous 
objects that have no quantitative relation. Hundreds 
of objects first numbered by the child have no such 
relation. The expressions "three children," "three 
horses," "three leaves," "three stars," etc., do not in- 
volve the idea of quantitative equality. The children 
may be of unequal ages and the horses, leaves, and stars 
of unequal sizes. Indeed, not even space relations enter 
necessarily into the child's ideas of number, for these 
ideas often relate to subjective phenomena and other 
objects that have no space relations. Speaking more 
technically, the child's first ideas of number are qualita- 
tive, not quantitative. All objects that have qualitative 
similarity may be numbered. These facts prove beyond 
question that the first number ideas of the child and the 



244 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

race denote Jiow many, and are not ratios. The idea of 
ratio is later, and is, as Dr. McClellan asserts, "the 
result of development." 

It is an error to assume that the mind cannot discern 
the relations between numbers without sensing or imag- 
sensing i^g Corresponding concrete magnitudes. The 
Numbers, mind that cannot discern that there are three 
2's in 6 or that 2 is one third of 6 without imaging con- 
crete magnitudes that correspond to 2 and 6 is in the 
infant phase, or is near the dunce condition in number 
power. Moreover, the sensing or imaging of numbers 
has at most a very limited possibility. It is true that 
a Httle training will enable the infant mind to image from 
one to ten objects readily ; and, by grouping, a few num- 
bers above ten may be imaged, but this imaging of num- 
bers soon reaches its limit as well as its utility. Besides, 
it is not possible for the mind to image even denominate 
numbers that denote time, force, energy, and other non- 
space quantities. 

Further, the habit of imaging numbers in correspond- 
ing concrete magnitudes is a serious obstacle in acquir- 
Habit of ^"^ ^ ^^^^ knowledge of numbers. In Galton's 
imaging " Inquiry into the Human Faculty," examples 
Numbers. ^^.^ given of pcrsous who have the habit of 
visualizing numbers. When, for example, the number 
seven is in the mind, the ghost of the figure 7 arises in 
the mind's eye, and in some instances in a certain place 
in the field of vision. This abnormal habit is not much 
more undesirable than the habit of imaging certain ma- 
terial objects as the symbols of numbers. The pupil who 
reaches the fourth school year unable to compare num- 
bers without first imaging corresponding magnitudes is 
in an almost hopeless number condition. To such a mind 



ARITHMETIC. 



245 



the rapid and accurate addition, subtraction, multiplica- 
tion, and division of numbers are not possible. This is 
not a case of "arrested development," for there has 
been no true number development to arrest. A child, if 
properly trained, early acquires the power to discern 
and compare numbers without imaging concrete objects 
to represent them. It is a serious mistake to assume 
that children are number dunces. 

These facts justify an earnest caution against the 
making of the measurement of concrete magnitudes 
too prominent in early lessons in number. 
Such measurements have a place, especially 
in deaUng with denominate numbers, but they should 
not be made the basis of number training. It is true 
that exercises involving the manipulation of geometrical 
blocks, the foot rule, the pint cup, etc., may be made 
very showy, and, it may be added, very deceptive. The 
limited number of comparisons possible may be repeated 
over and over until the pupils outdo those earlier num- 
ber prodigies who, by their feats in the mental 

. . Deceptive 

analysis ot problems, so astonished the old- Number 
time teachers. Whatever may be the value of ^^"""= 
such exercises in the actual measurement of magnitudes, 
they have small value as a preparation for the higher 
phases of arithmetical instruction or, indeed, for prac- 
tical life. Nine tenths of the pupils in our schools will 
give only a small fraction of their time in after life to 
the use of the yardstick or the balance, and those whose 
Hfe work involves the arts of measurement will use a 
more certain process than inspection. 

This suggests the fact that it is not possible to ascer- 
tain the exact ratio between two concrete magnitudes 
by observation or inspection, or, speaking more accu- 



246 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

rately, to find the ratios of the numbers which repre- 
sent such magnitudes ; for the good reason that it is 
„ . , not possible to find two numbers that will ex- 

Ratio of ^ 

Concrete actly represent the magnitudes. For example, 
n^fmeas^ured ^^ ^^ ^^^ posslblc to asccrtaiu by inspection 
by observa- the cxact ratio of the soHd A to the solid B. 
It may be seen that B is about 3 times as 
large as A, and hence that A is equal to about one third 
of B. It is clear that there is no quantitative accuracy 
here. Besides, the error in teach- 
ing that the solid A is one third 
of the soUd B is obvious for, be- 
ing separate concrete magnitudes, 
A is no part of B. The most that 
inspection can disclose is the fact 
that the magnitude A equals 
about one third of the magnitude 
B. This may be an approach of the mind to the idea 
of exact ratio, but it is not the way in which the mind 
reaches such an idea. 

It is thus seen that the methods of teaching number 
to children should not deal exclusively with concrete 
numbers, and especially with numbers represented by 
measured magnitudes. They should also train the 
mind in the easy grasp of abstract numbers, and give 
facility in discerning relations between such numbers. 
In no other study is it more important '' to unsense the 
The Three mzud.'' The initial steps in teaching num- 
initiai steps, ^gj-g g^^d numbcr processes include : (i) num- 
bers represented by groups of objects in sight (objective) ; 
(2) numbers represented by objects not in sight, but 
easily imagined or imaged ; and (3) numbers not appHed 
to sensible objects, that is, the so-called abstract num- 





ARITHMETIC. 247 

bers. These three steps may be taken in the same 
exercise or in different exercises. 

In the first year the emphasis is properly placed upon 
objective exercises. In these exercises a variety of 
objects should be used, and uniformity in the 
manner of presenting them avoided. Care Exercises 
should be taken not to continue thes^ objec- L'"^'*^^' 
tive exercises too long. It is possible to keep young 
pupils numbering, combining, separating, and comparing 
objects in sight so long that it is not easy to unsense 
their ideas of number, to secure their easy apprehen- 
sion of number without reference to visible objects.^ 

Special care should be taken from the first not to 
confound numbers and objects. '* Show me the num- 
ber three," says the teacher, and a pupil objects not 
holds up three fingers, thus probably con- Numbers, 
founding the group of fingers and the number three. 
Such a direction should be avoided. It is not the group 
of fingers that is the number three, but the threeness of 
the group, the Jiow many fingers in the group. Care 
should also be taken later not to confound numbers and 
figures or other number symbols. 

When denominate numbers are used, and they may 
be used early, the pupils should be made familiar with 
the units of measure by their actual use in Denominate 
measuring. The measures may also be used Numbers, 
with great advantage in comparing denominate numbers, 
and in finding what part one denominate number is of 

1 " The best method is undoubtedly to build up the basic elements 
from things, but there is great danger in keeping up thinking in things too 
long in the educative process. However, things should be used whenever 
they are needed for purposes of illustration or fixing a principle ; but the 
present tendency is to rely on them too much." — Supt. J. M. Greenwood, 
in New York Teachers' Alonograph, March, 1901. 



248 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

another, as the part 3 quarts are of a gallon, 4 inches 
of a foot, etc. But here again care should be taken 
not to use the visible measures too long. Measurement 
is not an end of number training, but only a means to 
an end, and when pupils can compare denominate num- 
bers without the presence of the measures, this should 
be done. When, for example, pupils instantly discern 
that 3 days are |^ of a week, and 6 hours ^ of a day, 
they do not need to inspect a foot rule to see that 4 
inches are ^ of a foot. It is a mistake to keep pupils 
manipulating blocks, foot rules, etc., until visions of 
these objects fairly haunt their number processes.^ 

Whatever be the objects used in the first lessons in 
number, pupils should soon pass from objects in sight 
to those not in sight, also to those that cannot be visu- 
alized, as numbers denoting time, and then early, not too 
early, to abstract numbers. Emphasis would properly 
be placed upon this last step but for the fact that so 
Drills on "^^i^Y tcachers are still using drills on ab- 
Abstract stract uumbcrs to the neglect of needed 
Numbers, objective and concrete exercises, a practice 
largely due to the fact that drills on abstract numbers 
are easier than objective instruction. Not only is this 
true of drills in number, but in all branches it is easier 
to drill pupils on words and other symbols than it is to 
teach them real knowledge, a fact sadly illustrated in 
the memoriter word and figure work which has so long 

1 " Teachers should be careful, especially with precocious children, not 
to continue too long in the use of a process that is becoming mechanical ; 
for it is already growing into a second nature." — Dr. W. T. Harris. 

" Let it be kept constantly in mind that these things are helps only, 
and as soon as the child can work without them, they should be cast 
aside." — Supt. J. M. Greenwood, Kansas City, Mo. 



ARITHMETIC. 249 

characterized school training. Care should be taken, 
however, to avoid the opposite extreme of exclusive 
objective training, of keeping young pupils swinging 
on the gate of sense. No abstract ideas are so early 
grasped or so easily manipulated by children as those 
of number, provided always that these are properly 
approached and taught. 

The Primary Course. 

There is positive advantage in limiting for a time the 
first lessons in number to numbers from one to ten inclu- 
sive. Experience shows that these ten dig- Numbering 
ital numbers can be readily tausfht to youns: Groups of 
children by begmnmg with exercises in num- out counting 
bering, combining, and comparing groitps of ^^ °"^^- 
objects, that is, objectively. A child may not at 
first be able to recognize at sight the number of ob- 
jects in a group exceeding three or four, but a few 
days of skillful training will enable him to number, 
witJwiLt coiuiting by ones, any group of objects not ex- 
ceeding ten. Whether this is done by a single percep- 
tive act or by separating the given group of objects 
into smaller groups and synthesizing these, the act of 
numbering is practically instantaneous and without 
a conscious process.^ Thousands of first year pupils 
have acquired the power to number instantly groups 
containing not more than ten objects. 

This perceptive power is of special value in the first 
steps in number training. It permits rapid work in 

1 In his experiments at Waltham, Mass., Dr. Thomas Hill proved that 
children can be trained to number without counting as many as fifteen and 
sixteen objects properly selected and presented. 



250 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

combining, analyzing, and comparing groups of objects 
without counting, and this is essential to the rapid addi- 
tion and subtraction of numbers as wholes. 

Special Value 

of Perceptive The habit of manipulating objects by counting 

Power. i^y ones must be overcome before pupils can 
learn to add and subtract the digital numbers withotU 
counti7ig. The experience of hundreds of teachers has 
shown that pupils may be trained from the first to add 
and subtract numbers as wholes.^ Teachers are not 
shut up to the alternatives of teaching numbers either 
by counting or by quantitative measurements of magni- 
tudes. 

The addition of equal numbers, as three 2's, and the 

separation of a number into equal parts, may properly 

be accompanied by exercises to develop the 

Fraction idea of a fraction. These exercises may 
Developed, j^dude the division of an object, as an apple 
or piece of paper, into equal parts, as halves, fourths, 
thirds, sixths, etc., and later the division of a group of 
objects into equal parts and naming one part, two parts, 
etc. The common measures, as the foot rule, the yard- 
stick, liquid and dry measures, geometrical surfaces, etc., 
may also be used for the purpose. The exercises should 
pass to the finding of the parts of concrete numbers not 
represented by visible objects, as numbers denoting time, 
force, money, etc., and then to abstract numbers. A 
Fractional sccond year pupil has been badly taught if, 

P**"*^- at the close of the year, he cannot discern 
instantly that i is one fourth of 4 ; 2 one half of 4 ; 2 
one third of 6; 3 one half of 6, etc. The fractions 

1 For exercises showing how this result may be attained, see the author's 
" Oral Lessons in Number," a manual for primary teachers ; also " Ele- 
ments of Pedagogy," pp. 294-302. 



ARITHMETIC. 25 1 

• should at first be expressed by words, and later by fig- 
ures. Nothing is gained in these early lessons by 
teaching pupils to add and subtract fractions. 

It may be added that number training should not be 
hurried the first two years of school. The exercises 
should be simple and natural, and should be Little Num. 
kept free of all attempts at logical reasoning ''^jrlt ^wo^ 
and still freer of a logical terminology. The Years, 
infant has no intelligent use for such terms as " because," 
"whence," "hence," and "therefore," or the cabalistic 
sign, "/o". But little should be done, even in the 
second year, with the factor processes and the factor 
signs, X and -^ . It is evident that nothing is gained 
by requiring so young pupils to write out the solution of 
problems in words, ^ The solution of problems at this 
stage should be oral. 

It is now twenty years since attention was called to 
the fact that the Grube method is not in harmony with 
sound mathematical or pedagogical principles. The Grube 
It was then shown that the part relation and Method, 
the factor relation of numbers are not identical, and 
that the processes of addition and subtraction (part 
processes), and multiplication and division (factor pro- 
cesses) have no such immediate connection as necessi- 
tates or justifies the teaching of these four processes 
together from the first. On the contrary, the factor 
processes, multiplication and division, naturally and 

^The writer recently saw this exercise in a primary class, first year, the 
exercise being written on the board by the teacher, and repeated and 
copied by the pupils : 

"Three oranges and four oranges are how many oranges? 

Three and four are seven. 

Hence three oranges and four oranges are seven oranges." 

O that " Hence " for infants ! 



252 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

logically follow the more primary processes of addition 
and subtraction, and this natural sequence should be 
observed in the first lessons in number. Skill in adding 
and subtracting small numbers is best acquired by con- 
tinued exercises in these inverse processes. The factor 
processes should be introduced later, and when intro- 
duced should be taught as inverse processes. The 
logical order is here the true pedagogical order. 

The ends to be attained in the first lessons in number 
are clear ideas of numbers and skill in primary number 
Ends in First proccsscs. To dcvclop a clear idea of a 
Lessons. given numbcr, it is not necessary for the 
child to view it in all possible relations to other known 
numbers ; and skill in number processes is not best 
attained by mixing unlike operations. Skill in any 
activity of body or mind is the result of repetition, and 
hence skill in any process or art is attained by a repeti- 
tion of the acts therein. The mixing of unlike processes 
in the same exercises retards the acquisition of skill. 

These and other fundamental objections to the Grube 
method of teaching number have been verified by its 
ob-ectionst ^^^^^^^ ^^ S^^^ dcsired skill in number pro- 
Method cesses. School inspectors have failed to find 
verified. -^ ^j^^ third and fourth years arithmetical 
skill or power that could be traced back to the Grube 
grind of the first and second years. The method is 
now rapidly disappearing from the primary schools 
which it has so long possessed. Its exit would be more 
rapid and general but for the acceptance by many 
teachers of the pedagogical theory that justifies and 
encourages the mixing of as many things as possible in 
teaching exercises — what may be called the conglom- 
erate theory of school training. 



ARITHMETIC. 253 

It may be added that the failure of the Grube method 
is not due to its general use of objects that have no 
quantitative relation or to its alleged ** fixed unit." Its 
failure would have been as marked if the objects used 
had been cubic blocks or the foot rule. Its weakness is 
more fundamental than the objective appliances used in 
its processes. 

When pupils have acquired the requisite skill in add- 
ing, subtracting, and comparing the digital numbers, 
the factor processes are easily developed and The Factor 
taught ; first multipHcation, and then division Processes, 
as the inverse process. It is not meant that the products 
of all the digital numbers two and two are to be learned 
before division is taught. The two processes should 
be taught jointly. When, for example, the product 
of 3 and 4 is learned, then 12 should be divided by 3 
and by 4. (3 x 4 = 12 ; 12 ^ 3 = 4 ; 12 -- 4 = 3.) The 
essential result is the association of the product with its 
two factors so that the product may be discerned in- 
stantly, zuithoHt adding, when the two factors are pre- 
sented to the mind. This association of the digital 
numbers two and two with their products makes possi- 
ble a distinct number process, called multiplication, and 
its inverse process called division. Addition and mul- 
tipHcation are differentiated as distinct processes, and 
hence the error in defining multiplication as the adding 
of equal numbers. The adding of equal numbers gives 
a sum, not a product. Division as a process is not sub- 
traction. 

The existence of four number processes is shown by 
the fact that they are uniformly designated by separate 
terms. No mathematical terms are more distinct than 
the terms add and multiply ^ sum and product ; subtract 



254 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

and divide, difference and quotient. The part signs, + 
and — , and the factor signs, x and -^ , run through mathe- 

The Four ^^^ics f rom primary arithmetic to the calcu- 
Number lus, and they never indicate the same process : 

Processes. ^ ^ ^ never means a-\- b, and a ^ b never 
means a — b. Moreover, no time is saved by teaching 
all four of these processes together from the first. The 
best results are attained by first teaching the inverse 
processes of addition and subtraction, and later the in- 
verse processes of multiplication and division. 



CHAPTER XX. 

ARITHMETIC {Cojitinued) . 

The Elementary Course. 

This simple and natural training in number during 
the first two years will prepare pupils well for the mas- 
tery of all the fundamental processes with 

•' ^ Number 

small numbers in the third year. The ex- Training in 
ercises should be both oral and written, the ^^''"'^ ^^^''' 
former being preparatory to the latter. The numbers 
used need not exceed 10,000, though the use of larger 
numbers the latter part of the year would not be a peda- 
gogic sin. 

The chief aim of the training from the first should 
be to impart rapidity and accuracy in all processes. It 
should also give a clear grasp of number re- Aim and 
lations ; and to this end the exercises should Exercises, 
include a great number and variety of simple concrete 
problems to be solved without any attempt at a formal 
logical analysis. They should also include, to some 
extent, the measurement of lines, surfaces, and soHds, 
the comparison of small denominate numbers, and 
incidentally the use of fractions, and also sums of 
money expressed orally and by figures. There need be 
no formal instruction or drills on fractions or United 
States money the third year. It is far better for young 
pupils to catch glimpses of these subjects by their occa- 

255 



256 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

sional use, just as they get their first knowledge of 
many things which they afterward know more fully. 

There is great advantage in the use of a manual in 
the third year. The use of a book by the pupils re- 
Advantage lieves the teacher from much unnecessary 
° ki^nThird ^^^or in preparing blackboard work, this being 
Year. Specially true in problems ; and it also relieves 
the pupils from the necessity of copying so many exer- 
cises from the board, often a severe tax on the eyes and 
nerves, especially in poorly lighted rooms. A suitable 
manual for third year use will contain a much greater 
variety of concrete problems than is possible for teach- 
ers to extemporize. Much of the board work prepared 
by teachers as a class is characterized by marked 
sameness and monotony. Besides, the use of a book 
affords pupils an excellent practice in seeing the rela- 
tions of numbers when expressed in print (p. 121). 

Pupils who reach the fourth year grade should be well 

prepared for a fuller development of the fundamental 

Number Operations, but care should still be taken not 

Training ^^ attempt too much in the direction of the 

in Fourth * 

Year. scicnccs of uumbers. Only a few definitions 
and principles should be taught, and these should be 
presented inductively. It should be kept in mind that 
pupils are still in the skill period of arithmetical train- 
ing, and the chief purpose of the exercises should be to 
give desired rapidity and accuracy in computation, and 
increased skill in the solution of problems by analysis. 
The mastery of the fundamental operations with inte- 
Fraction g^al numbcrs should be followed by training 
Processes, j^ the morc elementary phases of these oper- 
ations with fractional immbcrs, common and decimal No 
attempt should be made to teach these fraction processes 



ARITHMETIC, 



257 



exhaustively. Only fractions zvith small te7nns should 
be used, and these should be treated in like manner 
in both oral and written exercises. The use of the 
greatest common divisor and the least common multiple 
and other formal methods should be avoided. The aim 
should be to make pupils skillful in the simpler and 
more common processes with fractions, common and 
decimal, this being a preparation for a more complete 
treatment later in the course. This systematic training 
in fraction processes may properly be begun not later 
than the opening of the fifth school year ; and, since all 
functioning is made easy and skillful only by repetition, 
there should be sufficient isolation of the several pro- 
cesses to secure needed continuous repetition therein. 
Facihty and accuracy in number processes can be se- 
cured only by persistent and well-guided practice. 

Much stress has been laid by different authors and 
teachers on the place in the course in which common 
fractions, decimals, and percentage should be order of 
introduced, and also on the order in which Processes, 
they should be taught. Attempts have been made to 
mix decimals with integers in written exercises from 
the beginning, but the resulting gain has not been 
manifest. On the contrary, the early introduction of 
decimals lends no assistance to the mastery of the pro- 
cesses with 'integers or later with common fractions. 
Moreover, so young pupils have no occasion to use 
decimals, except possibly in writing sums of money, 
and here a child is little wiser when he learns that 
cents are decimal parts of a dollar. 

The natural order in which the mind gains a knowl- 
edge of these different forms and processes is (i) simple 
numbers or integers; (2) common fractions; (3) deci- 

ART OF TEACHING — I 7 



258 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

mals, and (4) percentage ; and this is also the order in 
which practical experience uses them. An idea of an 

Natural integer necessarily precedes the idea of a 

Order. fraction, and is more easily manipulated since 
a fraction is expressed by two numbers or terms. The 
idea of a common fraction with both terms expressed is 
not so difficult as the idea of a decimal fraction with one 
of its two terms not expressed. The complete idea of a 
per-cent number is dependent on the idea of hundredths 
expressed decimally. These facts indicate the order in 
which these subjects should be formally treated in an 
elementary course. It is true that \= .25 = 25/0, but 
this equality does not make possible one and the same 
process. The different forms of expression occasion 
different processes, this being specially true of common 
and decimal fractions. 

It is claimed that the separate treatment of common 
fractions, decimals, and percentage in the elementary 

Reason coursc givcs pupils the notion that they have 
urged for ^io common relation, and that this error can 

Teaching 

Processes be avoidcd only by teaching them together, 
together. jg '^^ ^^^^ ^j^^^. pypHg who take up the 

study of these subjects in succession, do not learn that 
^ = .25 = 25/0.? If so, such a result must be due to 
very bad teaching. It does not seem possible to give 
a pupil the idea of a decimal fraction without his see- 
ing that y^Q^Q and .25 express the same number. How is 
it possible to teach the meaning of 5 per cent except 
as 5 hundredths ? And yet all things pedagogical are 
possible when stupidity in the teacher meets the routine 
habit in pupils. 

But in order to avoid the error pointed out above, 
teachers are not shut up to the jumbling of all number 



ARITHMETIC. 259 

processes throughout the course, pupils nibbling at one 
and another from day to day. There are many oppor- 
tunities in the elementary school to make Avoidance of 
pupils more or less familiar with simple frac- ^"^"^ ^^^y- 
tions before their formal study. The writing of sums 
of money affords an opportunity to call attention to the 
decimal notation ; and the idea of per cent and the per- 
centage process may properly be introduced in connec- 
tion with the multiplication of decimals. Indeed, these 
different number ideas and symbols frequently occur in 
the experience of pupils, especially after the second 
year, and incidental attention to them as they occur is 
quite sufficient to attain desired results. The child's 
first ideas of many things are caught, not learned by a 
formal process. 

When pupils have acquired desired facility and accu- 
racy in the fundamental processes with both integral 
and fractional numbers, the subjects of United Applications 
States money, denominalj numbers, measure- °^^^^^' 
ments, ratio, and the elements of percentage Processes, 
may each receive special treatment. The time required 
for their mastery, to the extent presented, has been 
greatly lessened by the fact that they have already 
received more or less attention. The pupils from year 
to year have been made famihar with the common 
weights and measures, and their use in weighing dif- 
ferent substances and in measuring Hquids, grains, Hues, 
surfaces, etc. If they have been properly taught, the 
terms that denote these measures are not mere words, but 
are the symbols of the real measures. They have also 
had some practice in comparing denominate numbers, 
in discerning what part one number is of another, etc. 
They are now prepared to take up these subjects sepa- 



260 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

rately, and what is needed for the attainment of the best 
results is a series of exercises, oral and written, and con- 
crete problems, — all presented with proper sequence, 
the whole being reviewed in miscellaneous exercises. 

An important condition of success in this elementary 

course is the skillful iiiiion of oral and written exejxises. 

Union of The first step in the learning of a new written 

Oral and proccss should be the oral solution of exam- 

Wntten ^ 

Exercises, ples with Small numbers until the mental 
process is clear and familiar ; and this will usually re- 
quire a goodly number of oral exercises. When this 
step is properly taken, the mastery of the written pro- 
cess is easy, the chief difference between the oral and 
the written solution being the fact that in the former 
results are kept in mind, while in the latter they are 
written on board or slate or paper. The transition from 
the oral to the written process may be facilitated by 
writing on the board the results in connection with one 
or more oral solutions. There should be no haste to 
reach the written process. Time is saved in the end by 
the complete mastery of the oral process before passing 
to the written. 

It seems unnecessary to add that no written process 
should be taught by rule, and problems should not be 
solved by referring to a rule for the steps to 
be taken. When rules are given in an arith- 
metic, and this may be desirable, they should be placed 
after the problems} Rules should be formed by the 
pupils by generaHzing the written processes when famil- 
iar, thus supplementing the maxim, "Processes before 

1 " So far as possible, rules should be derived inductively, instead of 
being stated dogmatically. On this system the rules will come at the end, 
rather than at the beginning, of a subject." — " Committee of Ten," p. 105. 



ARITHMETIC. 26 1 

rules," by the later maxim, " Rules through processes." 
Concrete problems should be solved by a process of 
reasoning, not mechanically, and it will be found an 
excellent practice for pupils first to solve problems by 
indicating the operations by the proper signs, and then 
performing the operations indicated. One illustration 
may suffice. 

Problem : If 3 acres of land cost $96, what will be the cost of 8| acres? 



Solution. 
^96-3, X 81 =^ ,Ain. 



Process. 
32 



$ 272, Ans. 

It is an excellent drill, especially in reviews, for pu- 
pils to write rapidly the solution of a considerable num- 
ber of problems without stopping at the time to perform 
the operations. 

Experience shows that it will not suffice to Hmit the 
drills in analytical reasoning to the oral exercises that 
are introductory to the written work. These Numerous 
oral or mental exercises need to be supple- „ °^f* 

^ ^ Problems 

mented in as many subjects as may be prac- needed, 
ticable by miscellaneous problems for oral analytic 
sohitioji, a discipline that has a very important place 
in arithmetical training. The necessary problems for 
oral solution should not be in a separate manual, thus 
divorcing them from like problems for written solution. 
There are not two kinds of arithmetic, mental and 
written, and there is no good reason for putting prob- 
lems for oral solution (with small numbers) and those 
for written solution in separate manuals. This makes 
difficult the proper correlation of the two methods of 



262 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

solution, and it usually demands for arithmetic more 
time than ought to be given to the study. As the 
writer sees it, the continued demand for separate mental 
arithmetics, sometimes announced as *' the mental arith- 
metic revival," is lars^ely due to the failure of 

" Mental *^ ^ 

Arithmetic most school arithmetics to give a sufficient 
Revival." numbcr of problems for needed analytic 
drill, the oral exercises being usually limited to those 
which are introductory to the writtcji work. This has 
resulted in a neglect of analytic training ; and, to 
remedy this defect, the use of a separate mental arith- 
metic seems to many necessary. The needed prob- 
lems for oral analysis ought to be found in all 
approved arithmetics. 

It may be added that the oral solutions in the elemen- 
tary course should be concise and simple. The reason- 
simpie Oral i^g powcr of children is not trained or helped 
Solutions, by tbe repetition of what has been aptly 
called " logical verbiage." It is now seen that the elab- 
orate logical analyses of problems, which pupils were 
required to give when mental arithmetic was a school 
hobby, were often an injury and not a help to their 
thinking power. Much of the glib logical analysis, 
once the pride of so many teachers, was the result 
of the worst form of rote teaching, the analyses being 
committed to memory by the pupils, and repeated with- 
out any wholesome exercise of the reasoning power. 

Grammar School Course. 

The mastery of the elementary course in arithmetic, 
as indicated above, ought to prepare pupils for a more 
scientific study of the subject. Exercises to give increased 



ARITIIME TIC. 263 

facility and accuracy in computation should be continued, 
and there should be an abundance of problems for 
solution ; but it seems to the writer a erreat 

1 1 -1 1 .1,. Scientific 

mistake to keep pupils drilling on processes study of 
and solving miscellaneous problems during ^"thmetic. 
the last three years of the school course. This process 
training should be supplemented by a study of arith- 
metic as a science, pupils passing by easy generaliza- 
tions and inductions from processes to rules, and, what 
is more vital, to definitions, principles, and formulas. 
The different subjects should be studied somewhat in 
their completeness, as well as in their relations to each 
other. No mental discipHne is of higher value at this 
period of school training than that resulting from the 
proper study of arithmetic as a science. 

It is not meant that every subject that falls within 
the science of number should have a place in the gram- 
mar school course, or that all the arithmetical 

,.,,,. Subjects to 

subjects properly included in such a course be included 
should be taught with equal thoroughness. *" course. 
Several of the subjects which were treated in the stand- 
ard arithmetics, published forty years ago, are not in- 
cluded, with few exceptions, in more recent text-books 
designed for school use. These omitted topics include 
aUigation, permutation, the progressions, circulating 
decimals, duodecimals, annuities, equation of accounts, 
and several others. It has recently been urged that the 
school course in arithmetic should be further reduced 
by the omission of compound numbers, com- omissions 
pound interest, stock investments, foreign "'"g^^- 
exchange, equation of payments, compound proportion, 
compound partnership, and cube root ; and some have 
gone so far as to advocate the reduction of the work in 



264 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

arithmetic to the elementary course outUned above, 
practically to the art of numerical computation.^ 

This large reduction in the course in arithmetic is 

urged on the ground that arithmetical training should 

be reduced to the needs of actual life, that 

Ground for 

Such is, to the facts and processes that pupils will 
Reduction. ^^^ j^^ ^^^^^ j-^^ ^N\v'^\. a rcductiou in school 

courses of study would be made by the application of 
this test of value ! Not one pupil in ten in the high 
schools will ever use in after life an algebraic equation 
or formula. The same is true of geometry. Indeed, 
there are few studies in the high-school course whose 
facts will be consciously used in Hfe by one pupil in 
five. All the facts of physics which an ordinary artisan 
will have occasion to use in his trade, can be printed on 
the fly-leaf of a text-book in physics. Indeed, the test 
of practical utility in life's work has been rejected even 
by the later advocates of manual training. The truth 
is, the practical value of any school study depends pri- 
marily not on the tisableness of its facts in life, but on 
the general utility of the power and skill acquired by 
their mastery. 

The practical value of any subject in arithmetic 
depends ( i ) on the mental training afforded by a mas- 
tery of its processes and principles ; (2) the 
Practical uaturc and extent of their use in industrial 
^^^"^' and commercial life ; and (3) the value of the 
subject compared with other subjects that may be sub- 

1 " The cry of * Too Much Arithmetic ' is responded to by the practical 
exclusion of that part of the subject which so long furnished an unexam- 
pled training in logical processes and pure reasoning, the value of which 
can be hardly overestimated." — Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, Proceedings of 
N. E. A., 1899, p. 365. 



ARITHMETIC. 26$ 

stituted for it. The intelligent application of these 
tests will determine the time that should be given to 
arithmetic in the elementary school, as well as the sub- 
jects that should be taught. It may be added that the 
second of these questions cannot be determined by the 
supposed needs of individual pupils. It is not possible 
even to guess what arithmetical knowledge or skill will 
be actually used or needed by a given pupil in life. The 
most that can be known is that some, if not most, pupils 
who enter into community life may need certain knowl- 
edge or skill. The fact that approaches certainty is 
that the mental training afforded by the study will have 
practical value in those duties and relations of life which 
may be assumed by all. 

In the hght of the foregoing tests of value, it is con- 
ceded that but little time should be given to compound 
numbers, the exercises having practical value compound 
being largely limited to latitude and longi- Numbers, 
tude and to time (difference between dates) ; but it is 
by no means a waste of time for pupils to see that the 
fundamental processes with compound numbers are 
similar to the same processes with simple numbers. It 
may also be conceded that when the grammar school 
course is too crowded, compound proportion, compound 
partnership, and cube root may be omitted, or deferred 
until arithmetic is reviewed in the high school. 

We now face the reductions that should be made in 
percentage. The '' Committee of Ten " urged that 
" percentage should be rigidly reduced to Rg^ju^tions 
the needs of actual life," but the committee in 

failed to tell us whose actual hfe should be P"'^^"*^^'^- 
considered. As already indicated, no teacher can guess 
what will be the percentage needs of individual pupils 



266 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

in actual life. The only feasible course seems to be to 
give pupils as a class such training in the principles and 
processes of percentage as will enable them to meet 
whatever needs are likely to arise in life. This is all 
the more important since the mastery of percentage 
and its more common appHcations in industry and busi- 
ness affords a fine arithmetical training of general utility, 
this being specially true when the elementary course in 
processes is followed by a more scientific study of the 
subject, a view entirely overlooked by the committee. 
It is now agreed that equation of payments and 
equation of accounts may properly be transferred from 
the re2:ular school course to special business 

What Omis- ^ ^ 

sions are or Commercial courses. Whether such appli- 
Feasibie. cations as stock investments, customs, foreign 
exchange, etc., should be taught, depends on the time 
that can be given to percentage, the ability and attain- 
ments of the pupils, and other conditions. When 
pupils are well grounded in the principles of percen- 
tage and its more common applications, it requires but 
little time to learn the processes in stock investments, 
customs, and foreign exchange. Besides, the widening 
world outlook of the United States gives increasing 
interest to all questions relating to foreign trade. 
These subjects in some form enter into nearly every 
election, and even '' plain people " ought to know at 
least the meaning of the terms. One or two lessons 
devoted to compound interest makes possible an in- 
telHgent view of the difference between simple and 
compound interest, and, what is even more important, 
the difference between annual and compound interest. 
Many, if not most, notes extending two or more years 
are now drawn " with interest payable annually," or 



ARITHMETIC. 267 

''with annual interest." The pupils who complete the 
course in arithmetic in our schools ought to be able, 
with the aid of their text-book, to compute 

*■ Annual 

the interest due on such a note when the interest 
interest has not been paid annually, and also ^"^po""*^"*- 
when payments have been made from time to time. 
This is the kind of interest which thousands of the 
pupils in our common schools must compute and pay i7i 
after life. Many persons are now paying illegal com- 
pound interest, because they do not know how to com- 
pute legal annual interest.^ 

When pupils reach the seventh school year without 
any previous training in the simple elements of per- 
centage, it is clearly a mistake to attempt 
to teach the subject exhaustively, and it of 

would certainly be a mistake to teach all of ^^''^^^^^^se. 
its applications with equal thoroughness. The most that 
pupils can wisely undertake the first time they go over 
percentage is to master the more fundamental processes 
and to make the same familiar by solving problems in- 
volving their simpler applications, the commercial terms 
in such problems being explained by the teacher, when 
necessary. It is not important that beginners study 
the definitions and other statements introductory to the 
several applications, simple interest excepted. 

When pupils have received this elementary training 
in percentage, they are prepared for a more scientific 
and thorough study of the subject, including scientific 
a classification of its fundamental processes, study of 
their representation by formulas, the develop- p^'''^*^"*^^*- 
ment of definitions and principles, the comparison of 

1 In several suits in Ohio the courts have cited a certain standard arith- 
metic as authority on the method of computing the interest involved. 



268 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

the different kinds of interest, the several problems 
in simple interest and their representation by formulas, 
etc. No part of arithmetic presents better opportuni- 
ties for such study than percentage ; and, for pupils 
prepared for it, there is no finer arithmetical training. It 
is not too much to claim that intelligent people should 
have at least a general knowledge of the several 
applications of percentage. 

It may be added that the higher text-book in arithme- 
tic should present the subject as a science as well as an 
art, and with sufficient completeness for use 

books in in reviews in high schools, academies, and 
Arithmetic, j^qj-j^^j schools. It is also to be remembered 
that most of the teachers in our public schools obtain 
their knowledge of arithmetic from the text-book used 
in the schools, and it is evident that elementary training 
in processes is not an adequate preparation in arithmetic 
for a teacher. The fact that an arithmetic treats more 
subjects than can be properly mastered in all schools is 
not objectionable, but is desirable. The time is past 
when school courses actually include all the subjects 
treated in the text-books used by the pupils, and these 
in the exact order there presented. 

Introduction to Algebra. 

In a Cleveland grammar school over forty years ago, 
introductory lessons in algebra took the place of mental 
An Early arithmetic the second half of the eighth 
Experiment, school year. The lessons were largely limited 
to the solution of problems by means of the algebraic 
equation (algebraic method), most of the problems 
thus solved being also solved arithmetically by analysis. 



ARITHMETIC. 269 

These lessons in algebra correlated with the training in 
arithmetic, and also proved a helpful preparation for 
the study of elementary algebra in the high school, which 
in those days was easily mastered in less than a year. 

Since the report of the Committee of Ten in 1892, 
there has been quite an earnest advocacy of the teach- 
ing of the elements of al^^ebra in srrammar ,, ^ 

^ fc> & Algebra in 

schools, especially in the last year of the the Gram- 
course ; and some educators have gone so far "^'' ^^^°°*- 
as to recommend the dropping of arithmetic at the close 
of the sixth school year, and devoting the next two 
years to the elements of algebra and concrete geometry, 
a recommendation that has not met with much favor. 
Unfortunately, those who have advocated the introduc- 
tion of algebra into grammar schools have not been 
careful to indicate clearly the kind of als^e- „, 

•' ^ Wrong Kind 

braic training that should take the place of of Algebra 
arithmetic, and this has led in several cities to '"^'■°^"'^^'^- 
the introduction of the elements of technical d\g€\:>x2. in the 
eighth school year, the course being similar to the first half 
of the elements of algebra taught in the high school. 

The result is that pupils are kept two years or more 
on the elements of algebra with little real gain. The 
testimony of teachers of als^ebra is to the ^ . 

•' ° Testimony 

effect that but little time is saved in the high of 

school by the year or more of algebra in the teachers, 
grammar schools. In several cities pupils with a year 
of algebra in the grammar school enter the classes in 
the high school with pupils who have had no algebra 
but have had a year more of arithmetic ; and, in a few 
weeks, it is found that the pupils who had algebra in the 
grammar school are not superior in the study to the 
other pupils. In one of the largest cities in the country 



2/0 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

a high-school teacher of algebra recently estimated that 
the year of algebra in the grammar school counted for 
about six weeks of algebra in the high school. 

There is evident disappointment in the results of the 
instruction in algebra in grades below the high school ; 
and this is due, in the writer's judgment, to 
Disappoint- the iutroductiou of technical algebra, which 
*"^' has little connection with arithmetic. It is 
clear that technical algebra has no value that justifies 
its study before arithmetic is properly completed. The 
practical value of algebra below the high school is 
almost wholly limited to the use of the algebraic method 
in the solution of problems and the statement of formu- 
las, with some resulting familiarity with the expression 
of numbers by letters as well as by figures. The use of 
the algebraic equation for these purposes, 

Algebra propcrly called rational algebra, is helpful in 

needed. arithmetic and subsequently in algebra. On 
the contrary, little is gained in keeping pupils dawd- 
ling over the elements of technical algebra for two 
or three years, including a year or more in the high 
school. It is much better to limit the exercises in algebra 
in the eighth school year to the solution of two hundred 
to three hundred problems that may also be solved 
arithmetically, thus practically correlating the two 
methods. Any good arithmetic for grammar grades will 
contain several hundred problems that can be solved 
algebraically. 

There is no good reason for the substitution of algebra 
for arithmetic in the seventh school year. No algebraic 
lessons can equal in mental discipline or practical utility in 
life the training possible in arithmetic the seventh year, 
a training superior to that of the two preceding years. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
GEOGRAPHY. 

In the recent discussions of geographical instruction 
in elementary schools special stress has been put on the 
order in which the subject-matter of geog- ^ 

■* ^ fc> & Two Views 

raphy should be presented in the school as to 
course. One view asserts that the study of °'''*^''" 
geography should begin with the physical phenomena 
of the earth's surface, and then pass from these physi- 
cal facts to the industrial and other human interests 
which they occasion or condition. Another view re- 
verses this order. It would begin with human interests, 
specially including man's industrial and commercial 
activities, and then pass from these facts to the physical 
phenomena which occasion or condition them. 

Whether in geographical instruction the teacher 
should pass from causes to their effects or from effects 
back to their causes seems to depend on circumstances, 
including the nature of the phenomena and the capa- 
bility of the pupils. Physical and human phenomena 
are so commingled at first that it does not seem no invaria- 
possible to observe an invariable order in their ^l^ °''^7 '" 

^ Elementry 

presentation. Moreover, the difference of Geography, 
view in question relates more to emphasis than to 
order. One view emphasizes the physical side of geog- 
raphy, and the other lays special stress on the human 
side. Certainly geographical instruction cannot begin 
with the scientific study of physical phenomena. A 

271 



2/2 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

causal explanation of the formation and configuration 
of land masses, of climate, winds, tides, ocean currents, 
etc., must wait for the learner to reach the scientific 
phase of mental development, and hence it cannot be 
made the initial or basal step in geographical instruc- 
tion. The scientific study of physical phenomena has 
a small place below the seventh school year. 

The discussion of the geography question has been 
attended by attempts to determine the subject-matter 
of geography by the application of philo- 
matterof sophic thcorics as to the ends to be at- 
Geography. ^g^jj^g^ T\iQ, two thcorics that havc inspired 
several recent experiments may be characterized by 
the terms individualism and indiLstrialism. Special 
stress has been put upon the theory that whatever is 
taught in geography should have a vital relation to the 
Individual- interests and future needs of pupils as indi- 
's'" vidtials. The writer confesses his inability 
to see how such a theory can be actually realized in 
school instruction. It presupposes either that the fu- 
ture life of a child is an open book or that teachers are 
endowed with sufficient prophetic insight to divine the 
child's future. Is there any rational ground for either 
of these suppositions } Who can possibly forecast even 
the future industrial life of a child } If this be not pos- 
sible, who can tell just what geographical knowledge 
will best meet his future industrial needs t Not one 
fact in ten now included in what is called geography 
will ever directly touch the industrial or commercial 
activities of the great majority of pupils. 

It seems evident that the basis for a course of instruc- 
tion in geography can never be found in the special 
interests or industrial needs of pupils as individuals. 



GEOGRAPHY. 2/3 

What is really covered in this theory by the blanket 
phrase, " the life of the child"? We are increasingly 
impressed with the feeling that much of the talk about 
correlating knowledge with the life of the individual 
pupil is little short of pedagogic cant. The unknown 
future of a child is about as uncertain a guide in school 
training as the uncertain guesses based on the child's 
complex heredity. Besides, does not all knowledge 
touch in some way the life of the knower.? 

The fundamental question in geographical instruction 
is not what knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants 
will be helpful to little John Jones in his vaiueof 
future activities, but what knowledge and Geography, 
training will be useful to pupils as a class (including 
John Jones), not only in their outer activities, but also in 
their inner Hfe. The value of geography as a school 
study is not measured chiefly by its industrial and 
commercial utility, but rather by what it does to fur- 
nish a basis for a knowledge of current world events, 
for the intelligent reading of history, especially con- 
temporary history, and, above all, by what it does to 
train the imagination and to broaden and enrich sub- 
jective experience and enjoyment. It is a happy fact 
that these results are reached by essentially the same 
general method of instruction. 

It is now generally agreed that geographical knowl- 
edge presents three somewhat distinct phases, corre- 
sponding to the phases of mental development 
through which pupils pass as they advance in courses in 
the school course, to wit : the observational ^^o^raphy. 
or perceptive phase, the intermediate or transitional 
phase, and the scientific phase. The adaptation of the 
subject-matter and method of instruction to the capa- 

ART OF TEACHING — l8 



274 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

bility of the pupils in these three phases gives three 
somewhat distinct courses, as follows : 

1. An oral course in home geography — primary ideas 
and facts taught objectively. 

2. An elementary course, with the use of globes, maps, 
relief and outline, and text-books. 

3. A scientific course in pJiysical geograpJiy. 

It is now more than thirty years since the division of 
the course in geography into these three well-defined 
sub-courses was made by the writer, and it is a source 
of gratification that the latest studies of the geography 
problem confirm the wisdom of the division. It is true 
that the "Conference" on geography in the Committee 
of Ten names only two courses for elementary schools, 
to wit: elementary geography and physical geogra- 
phy, " the latter to be pursued in the higher grammar 
grades"; but, in the treatment of elementary geogra- 
phy, the Conference formally recognizes the phase 
called *' Observation Geography," and adds the judg- 
ment that " observation should go before all other forms 
of geographical study and prepare the way for them." 
The same succession of phases of instruction is recog- 
nized, though less formally, by the Committee of Fifteen, 
and later by the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools. 
This division is embodied in numerous courses of study, 
the observation course being usually called "primary" 
geography. While the formal study of physical geogra- 
phy is begun in the higher grades (upper grammar or 
lower high school), many of the problems of the science 
are now found in the introductory pages of elementary 
text-books, and teachers are trying to teach these prob- 
lems to young pupils with small ability for scientific 
thought. 



GEOGRAPHY. 2^$ 



I. Home Geography. 



Little instruction that may properly be called the 
teaching of geography can wisely be given to children 
under seven years of age. When children enter school 
as early as five, as in several states, there are two years 
of training preparatory to even home geogra- 
phy, two years of introductions to nature, and sons in 
these made beautiful by the spirit and meth- Nature, 
ods of the kindergarten. In these little nature lessons 
no attempt should be made to be systematic and formal, 
and it would be well if the idea of geography should 
not once enter the teacher's mind. The aim should 
rather be to give the children glimpses of nature "in 
her varying moods," opening the eye to see her sights, 
the ear to hear her sounds, and the heart to admire and 
love her beauty. In these early lessons, both the kinder- 
garten and the primary school have found a place for 
nature poems and stories which interpret for the child 
nature's phenomena, and lend them added charm and 
interest. Several pages could easily be filled with quo- 
tations from poems and stories which teachers have used 
with happy results. But care needs to be taken not to 
give the infant mind false impressions of nature that 
may be difficult to overcome in later instruction. Scien- 
tists have criticised some of the nature lessons given in 
the schools as fiction, and it is even hinted that there are 
teachers who deal with fiction better than with fact, 
since the latter requires accuracy ! 

It may be added that in these early lessons there 
should be no haste to get the infant away from 
his little world of home. Let him observe and worid of 
know its animals and birds, its trees and flowers, Home. 



276 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

the sunshine, the rain, the snow, the clouds, the winds, 
etc., before he tries to fly beyond the horizon on the 
poor wings of words. This danger of haste is very real 
in cities where many children never see the full expanse 
of sky, the clouds floating in unobstructed view, the 
sunset ; much less the earth's surface, with its natural 
Nature in ^iUs, vallcys, plains, streams, etc. It is true 
Cities. '^2i\. human life here presents its manifold 
phenomena of interest ; but the wise teacher will be on 
the alert to find nature for the child even in the crowded 
city. In the absence of all observations of nature even 
the Uterature of the nursery is on its nature side largely 
sealed to the child. It is only the story with a human 
setting that can, under these conditions, appeal strongly 
to the city child. 

The early nature lessons, thus indicated, are at best 
only a preparation for fruitful instruction in observa- 
HomeGeog- tioual or homc geography. In the third 
raphy. school year (second year when pupils enter 
school at six) should be undertaken a more systematic 
and thorough teaching of the primary ideas, concepts, 
and facts that constitute the basis of geographical 
knowledge ; and in this instruction it should ever be 
kept in mind, that on the clearness and accuracy 
of the pupil's knowledge of these basal elements of 
geography will largely depend his success in its future 
study. The teacher's guiding aim should be, not only 
"to develop the power and habit of geographical obser- 
Teacher's vatiou," but also to givc pupils a clear and 
Guiding accurate knowledge of primary ideas and 
*™" facts, — to lay a sure foundation of geo- 
graphical knowledge. The only way to reach the un- 
known is to begin with the known, not simply the 



GEOGRAPHY. 277 

near, but with what is actually known of the near. The 
pupil's passage from the world bounded by the horizon 
line to the great world that lies beyond, depends on his 
knowledge of the home world. In all these lessons in 
home geography, the teacher must remember that pri- 
mary ideas cannot be taught by means of words (p. 35); 
and here is the best of opportunities to apply the maxim, 
" Never tell a child anything which you can lead the 
child to know and tell you " (p. 64). 

Among the primary geographic ideas and facts to 
be taught clearly in these lessons in home geography 
are (i) position or place, direction, cardinal Lessons in 
points ; (2) distance, inch, foot, yard, rod. Home 
mile; (3) surface, level, sloping, plane, un- ^^°e'"^P^y- 
even; (4) surface representation by maps; (5) hills 
or mountains, ridges or ranges, summit or top, slopes, 
base, height, etc. ; (6) valleys, plains, fields, forests ; 
(7) streams of water, source, course, mouth, banks, 
channel, bed, branches, brooks, river; (8) pond, lake; 
(9) map representation of hills, valleys, streams, ponds, 
etc., — map of township or section of city; (10) trees, 
plants ; ( 1 1 ) animals, wild, domestic ; (12) birds, wild, do- 
mestic (fowls); (13) fishes, reptiles, insects; (14) rocks, 
soil, action of water, etc. ; ( 1 5 ) grains, grasses, vegetables, 
etc.; (16) fruits, apples, peaches, etc., berries; also 
fruits sold in market; (17) clothing plants, (if any), 
building materials; (18) weather observations, fair, 
cloudy, temperature; (19) wind, north wind, south, east, 
west, storms, etc. ; (20) the people, the family, home, 
school, etc.; (21) occupations, farm products, dairy 
products, articles manufactured; (22) local trade, roads, 
bridges, etc. ; (23) races of men, individuals seen by 
pupils ; (24) climate, the sun, position when rising 



278 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

at noon, when setting — in winter, in summer, etc.; 
(25) the seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter, posi- 
tions of sun at noon ; (26) day and night, in summer, 
in winter, when equal ; (27) divisions of the day, num- 
ber of hours, clocks and watches, sundial, noon marks, 
etc. 

The lessons outlined above inadequately indicate the 

instruction in home geography that may profitably be 

Third and S^^^^ ^^ the sccoud and third school years 

Fourth (third and fourth years when pupils enter 
School Years, ^^j^^^j ^^ ^^^^ ^j^.^ instruction may be fol- 
lowed by a few lessons on the state in which the pupils 
live, with map of same ; and, if thought best, a few les- 
sons on the United States. The pupils are now prepared 
for a study of the earth as a whole by means of globes 
and hemisphere maps. 

It is not our present purpose to sketch the methods 
to be used in teaching these primary lessons. This is 
done quite fully in the author's '' Elements of Pedagogy," 
pp. 271-283,^ and it is now given with more or less com- 
pleteness in other manuals, and in various courses of 
Principle to study. It must suffice here to add that the 
be observed. Qj^g principle always to be observed in teach- 
ing primary knowledge is that the mind acquires all 
primary ideas from things and phenomena, and not from 
words. It follows that the primary ideas and facts that 
are the elements of geographical knowledge can be 
taught only objectively, that is, by leading the pupil to 
observe objects that will occasion such knowledge. 

The attempt to embody such primary knowledge in a 

1 This syllabus of lessons has been approved by scores of the most skill- 
ful primary teachers in the country, and it has been used as the basis of 
instruction in methods in institutes, training classes, normal schools, etc. 



GEOGRAPHY. 279 

book for pupils to study has always failed and must 
always fail, since such knowledge is not gained from 
language. No author has ever written, and no author 
will ever write a primary geography that should be put 
into the hands of youns^ pupils as a means 

-^ , ^ ^ ^ No Primary 

of acquiring primary ideas and facts. There Geography 
is but one book from which this knowledge ^""en. 
can be acquired, and this is bound not in pasteboard but 
by the Jiorizon line. In the child's little world of home 
are all of the primary ideas and concepts of geography. 
It has been truly said that " the great world is but the 
child's world of home ' writ large. * " 

It is not meant that this early geographical instruction 
should be entirely within the pupil's horizon. The facts 
observed in home lessons may often present _ 

-' ^ Excursions 

occasions for imaginary excursions into the into wider 
wider world, the children seeing with the '^o''^'^- 
mind's eye most interesting related phenomena. The 
stories read in these years will also open windows 
through which they will get ghmpses of far-off lands 
and their inhabitants. But when the observation lessons 
outlined end, the pupils should have a clear and definite 
knozuledge of the primary ideas and facts which are the 
basis of geographical knowledge. 

It is easy in these early years to overwork the tracing 
of relationships between geographical facts, and espe- 
cially the facts of observation. It may be Relations of 
true that nothing in human knowledge stands Facts, 
alone, that every fact has relation to some other fact, 
but most of these relations exist in the minds of philos- 
ophers. Few persons see the relations, and especially 
the causal relations, of one tenth of the facts which 
they know or have known. Indeed, it is a relief to let 



28o THE ART OF TEACHING. 

much that one knows stand alone. The constant hunt- 
ing for correlates does not pay either in mental power 
or knowledge ; and, besides, too much correlating makes 
one's mental Hfe a drudgery. It is certainly unwise 
to force infants to hunt for philosophic unities and 
''apperceptive centers." Most of this work in geogra- 
phy may wisely be left for physiographists. It will 
suffice for the child to see the more obvious relations 
of facts somewhat closely associated. Few children are 
philosophers. 

Most teachers may find advantage in the use of an 
elementary geography in the latter part of the course 
Elementary i^ homc geography outlined above. The 
Geography, maps and illustratious, as well as the text, will 
be helpful in passing beyond the boundaries of home. 
Such an elementary manual with few details will also be 
better than an advanced treatise in the courses mapped 
out in the first half of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

GEOGRAPHY {Continued). 

II. The Elementary Book Course. 

The fifth school year should find pupils well pre- 
pared to begin the systematic study of the earth as the 
home of man ; and, when pupils are not admitted to 
school until they are six, this study may be begun as 
early as the middle of the fourth school year. 

This course should begin with a review of the preced- 
ing oral course, special attention being given to the 
natural phenomena observed, including the 
natural objects of land and water, animals of orai 
and plants, farm and mineral productions, bourse, 
the seasons of the year, etc. If these natural objects 
and phenomena have been properly taught in the lower 
classes, the pupils will not only be familiar with their 
names, but, what is better, they will have clear and 
definite concepts of the objects. Several weeks may 
wisely be devoted to this review of the prior oral course. 

This review may increasingly include exercises in 
which the pupils pass from known objects to a concep- 
tion or image of like unknown objects, and at 
last reach a definition of the class of objects 
to which they belong. Thus from the concept hill, 
clearly formed and analyzed, pupils may be led to the 
definition, " A hill is a natural elevation of land," each 
term in the definition being clearly understood. From 
the concept hill pupils may be led to image a very high 

281 



282 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

hill, calling it a mountain, and then reach the definition, 
*'A mountain is a high elevation of land." In like 
manner pupils may be readily taught the definition of 
plain, valley, island, river, lake, and other natural objects, 
land and water, ordinarily given in the introductory 
pages of an elementary geography.^ 

The first step in this process, the passing from a 
known object in nature to a like absent and unknown 
object, is not new to the pupils since this has been an 
interesting element in the oral course; but now the 
process should result in a more definite conception of 
the object that lies beyond the horizon. This 

Imaging , •' ■' 

Unseen will dcpcud much on the teacher's skill in 
Objects. leading pupils to image the unseen. Pictures 
of the objects to be imaged will greatly assist in such 
instruction, and the pupils may be helped by modeling 
objects in sand when this is practicable. But it is 
clearly a mistake to begin the process with pictures or 
models when like real objects are within easy reach. 
The true order is to pass from the real object known by 
observation to the like unknown object that lies beyond 
the horizon of sense, and it is in imaging the absent 
object that the picture is most helpful. In cities pupils 
often get their first conceptions of objects in nature 
from pictures, but such conceptions are necessarily lack- 
ing in the element of reahty. 

In these introductory lessons no attempt should be 

made to teach the definitions of mathematical terms or 

Mathemati- to givc formal explanations of the change of 

cai Terms, scasous, the chaugcs in the relative length 

of day and night, etc. It is not possible to give astro- 

1 For somewhat detailed methods of teaching the definitions of these 
natural objects, see " Elements of Pedagogy," pp. 283-286. 



GEOGRAPHY. 283 

nomical explanations of these phenomena to so young 
pupils, and such instruction should be deferred until the 
higher course in geography is reached. ^ 

But by means of a globe pupils can easily be taught 
the shape of the earth, to name and locate parallel and 
meridian lines, the equator, the tropics, the Lessons on 
polar circles, the poles, the zones and their G'obe. 
boundaries, etc. They can also be given a general 
notion of the climate of the several zones, and their 
characteristic productions, plants, and animals ; and this 
may be followed by lessons on the continents and 
oceans, their comparative size, their zone belts and 
climates, the mountain and river systems of the conti- 
nents, their great plains, their peninsulas and outlying 
large islands, their indenting seas, gulfs, and bays, etc., 
special attention being given in all this globe instruc- 
tion to those striking characteristic features which may 
always appear in memory when the mental pictures of 
earth, continent, or ocean is reproduced. 

These lessons on the globe should be reviewed by the 
use of a good outline map of the world,^ which, for 
class purposes, is much superior to a globe. Lessons on 
the latter being too small for successful class outline Map. 
use. There should, however, be frequent references to 
the globe, and the individual pupils should handle and 
observe it. The map of the world takes true form 

1 We seldom witness an attempt to explain the change of seasons or the 
changes in the relative length of day and night to young pupils in which 
error is not taught. It is better to teach the simple facts of observation, 
and leave their scientific explanation to teachers in higher grades. 

2 If the school is not supplied with a good outline map, the teacher 
may find it necessary to draw such a map on the blackboard or on paper. 
An accurate map for this purpose may be made by means of a stencil 
map which can be readily secured for the purpose. 



284 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

when it is seen to represent the surface of the globe. 
It is a good plan to conduct these exercises with a good 
outline map before the class, the chief purpose being to 
form in the pupil's mind a distinct image of the earth's 
surface ; and it will^ be a most valuable result if these 
Mental Map Hicntal imagcs are faithful reproductions of 

Image. ^hc earth pictures of the globe and the map. 
The writer has retained all these years the power to 
reproduce at pleasure the mental pictures of the earth 
and its grand divisions of land and water formed in early- 
childhood by the study of globes and maps. No other 
geographical acquisition has been of equal practical 
value. He has always found it easy to pass from the 
clear mental image of the map to the conception or 
picture of the real country thus imaged, to pass from 
the map image to a conception of the country itself. It 
is believed that this is the common experience of those 
who obtained in childhood clear mental map images. 

The oral instruction and map drills, indicated above, 
should now be reviewed by the study of the introduc- 
Lessons in tory Icssous in the text-book. If these book 
Text-book, lessons are properly assigned, the study of 
the text will broaden and clarify the pupil's knowledge. 
It is always easy to omit those portions of the text for 
which pupils are not yet prepared, and which can best 
be learned later in the course. The class exercises 
should be searching tests, whether reviewing important 
facts and definitions or the pupil's knowledge of the 
earth as a whole. The knowledge thus reviewed is 
fundamental, and the teacher's tests should be searching 
and thorough. 



GEOGRAPHY. 285 

THE STUDY OF GRAND DIVISIONS. 

The pupils should now be well prepared to undertake 
the systematic study of the several grand divisions, in- 
cluding their physical features and also their political 
divisions, cities, etc. There is a difference of opinion 
as to the order in which the two grand divisions of the 
western continent should be studied, but there south 
is a general agreement that South America America, 
is the simpler for study, the only drawback being its 
Spanish and Portuguese names. This difficulty is, how- 
ever, more than offset by its regular form and striking 
configuration. Fifth year pupils find Httle difficulty in 
getting a definite conception of its bold physical fea- 
tures and phenomena, including its form and coast line, 
its mountain and river systems, its vast plains, its chief 
cities (seacoast and inland), its commerce, its zones, its 
prevailing winds, etc. The Andes present features of 
special interest, and the location of such cities as Bogota 
and Quito is full of suggestion. 

Many teachers, however, prefer to begin with the 
home grand division passing from its physical features 
to its poHtical divisions, large cities, and its North 
throbbing commercial and industrial life. The America, 
study of the political divisions of North America properly 
centers in the United States, its most important country 
and one of special interest to American youth. Teachers 
of geography differ as to the time which, at this stage, 
should be devoted to a study of the United States. A 
large amount of time may be given to the united 
study of the states and territories separately, states, 
including their boundaries, areas, cities, productions, in- 
dustries, commerce, etc. It is believed to be better to 



286 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Study the states in groups or sections, with compara- 
tively little attention to their separate study, the home 
state possibly excepted. 

Having acquired a general but definite knowledge of 
the western continent, the pupils are prepared for an 

Eastern iutelHgent study of the eastern continent, 
Continent, and Australia. It is not necessary at this 
stage to study Europe, Asia, and Africa in the light of 
their historical, commercial, and industrial relations 
to the United States, and hence the order in which 
they are taken up is not important. It will usually 
be found best to follow the order of the text-book 
used. 

The pupils have already acquired a general conception 

of the more important physical features of each grand 

division, and the present purpose is to make 

Features and this conccptiou fuUcr and more definite. To 

Political Di- |-}^jg ^^^^ not only the physical features but 

visions. . . ... 

the political divisions must receive atten- 
tion; and, while it is not feasible to study the several 
countries exhaustively, their more important charac- 
teristic facts should be taught. But it is not our pur- 
pose to attempt to determine what knowledge should 
be acquired in the study of a grand division, but 
rather to indicate the successive steps that should be 
taken in such study, wishing to be as definite and help- 
ful as possible. 

Successive Steps. 

1. The first step in the study of a grand division is the 

Map Read- interpretation of the map, — map reading. 

'"e- In this step the pupils should be told nothing 

which they can be led to discover from the map. In 



GEOGRAPHY. 287 

this study it will be well to follow a definite order in 
taking up the several features. 

2. The next step is to fix the facts discovered, and 
to learn other facts by drawing the map progressively, 
tracing features as they are studied, — map ^ap Draw- 
drawing. This will necessitate close obser- »"&• 
vation, and will result in a more definite mental picture 
of the grand division. Since accuracy is essential, it is 
recommended that the pupils use faintly traced contours 
in drawing outlines, filling in details as learned. Form 
and reHef features may also be molded in sand. 

These two steps may often be taken together, the 
map drawing accompanying the study and interpreta- 
tion of the map. Nothing should be drawn that does 
not represent facts known by the pupil. The map 
drawn by the pupil should represent his knowledge. 

3. This oral study of a grand division from the map 
and its reproduction should be followed by review drills 
in which the pupils should state in proper Review 
order the facts learned. This review may ^""s. 
be made from a map drawn on the board or paper 
by means of a stencil, or, what is better, from a good 
outline wall map. It is not enough in this review that 
pupils point to and name the objects represented on 
the map. They should also state what they know of 
each object, the facts which make up the concept de- 
noted by the name. It is true that this will require 
definite knowledge, but this ought to be the result of 
prior study and instruction. The map questions in 
the book (if any) should be used only after the map 
has been thus studied and reviewed, that is, in the 
final review. 

4. The last step is the study of the descriptive text^ 



288 ' THE ART OF TEACHING. 

followed by searching tests of the pupil's mastery of 
Descriptive the samc. The lessons should be so assigned 
Text. as to secure intelligent study, and no portion 
of the text, definitions excepted, should be committed 
to memory or be recited by repeating the author's 
language. Only the more important facts should be 
called for. Special topics prepared by the teacher 
may guide the pupils both in study and in reciting, 
but general topics should not be used (p. 109). The 
final test is for pupils to recite from the map which is 
in their mind's eye. 

MAP DRAWING. 

We are thus led to a consideration of map drawing 

as an element in geographical training. Forty years 

ago map drawing was taught in many schools, 

ing as an especially in cities, as an art, and much time 

^'■*' was devoted to the making of accurate and 

finished maps, the same being more or less faithful 

copies of the engraved maps in the geographies. In 

some schools these maps were drawn by means of lines 

of latitude and longitude, not only coast lines and other 

boundaries being thus determined, but the location of 

internal details. The pupils by practice acquired great 

skill in this work, and finished maps, with the details 

of the engraved maps copied, were conspicuous in all 

exhibits of pupils' work. The "art" of drawing maps 

became a hobby in many schools. 

This copying of maps was succeeded by the drawing 
of maps/r^;;^ memory, and several systems of map draw- 
ing were devised, and manuals representing the same 
were published and exploited. These systems were 



GEOGRAPHY. 289 

usually based on ''construction lines" to determine out- 
lines, these lines being geometrical figures, as triangles 
and rectangles. Much time was spent by ^^ j^^^^_ 
pupils in acquiring the ability thus to draw ingfrom 
maps from memory; and, in the examinations M«"^°''y 
in geography, it was quite common to assign the drawing 
of the map of a state or country as one of the important 
tests. This was attended in some schools by the pro- 
duction of maps in water colors, and daubs of color, 
called maps, were often hung on the walls of school- 
rooms as evidence of the pupils' skill, and also as an 
encouragement to effort. 

In these successive phases of map drawing, skill in 
the art of map making was the conscious end of effort, 
the true purpose of map drawing as an aid in geographi- 
cal study being almost wholly overlooked. Trueendof 
But it slowly dawned on the more thoughtful Map Draw- 
teachers that map drawing as an art has small *"^' 
practical value, and that it has even less value as a 
means of. art training, the time being much more profit- 
ably spent in teaching drawing as a general art. This 
view was strengthened by the introduction of drawing 
into the schools, since this gave teachers the opportunity 
to compare drawing as an art with map drawing. The 
result was a general discontinuance of the drawing of 
maps by copying or by means of " construction lines " 
and the srradual substitution of free-hand ^ ^ ^ 

°^ Free-hand 

map drawing, more properly described as Map Draw- 
"an off-hand drawing of maps with few '"^ 

details." The maps thus drawn have their use as illus- 
trations of the more striking features of the countries 
studied, but they are usually so imperfect in outline that 
they blur the mental maps acquired by pupils in the 

ART OF TEACHING — I9 



290 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Study of accurate maps. The fact that these off-hand 
sketches lack the essential features of a map, to wit, accu- 
racy of outline , led to the use of stencil maps by teachers, 
and stencils or, better, faintly traced outlines by pupils. 
The writer used this device in a large city with hun- 
dreds of teachers and thousands of pupils, and it was 
found to attain well the true ends of map 

Use of . . ^ 

Traced Out- drawing. It aided the pupils in the accurate 

lines. observation of the map studied, and also 
helped to fix in the memory the characteristic features 
of the continent or country. The traced outlines used 
by the pupils located few details, but these, after the 
contour was progressively drawn, were filled in as they 
were learned i7t the study. The maps thus drawn were 
accurate in outline and more or less accurate in details, 
much more accurate than maps otherwise drawn, the 
slow process by lines of latitude and longitude excepted. 

An experience of two years showed that the use of 

these traced outlines secured the important purposes of 

map drawing as an aid to map study with 

Traced Out- much Icss wastc of time and effort than other 

lines. methods. It made the drawing of maps a 
means, and not an end, and the pupils became increas- 
ingly skillful in map reading, which seems more impor- 
tant than skill in map drawing art. An essential thing 
in the use of traced outlines is the securing of a critical 
observation of coast lines and other boundaries before 
they are draivn and as they are drawn, otherwise the 
drawing of the outlines may be a purely mechanical 
process with little geographic value. 

Enough has been said to show that map drawing is 
a school exercise which is easily overdone. It is, in- 
deed, always overdone when it does not aid the pupil 



GEOGRAPHY. 291 

in gaining a clear concef)tion of the features of the 
country represented by the map studied and ^^p^^^^. 
drawn. As an art it has small practical value, ing over- 
There has been an immense waste of time in 
the schools in the drawing of maps for the sole purpose 
of making pupils skillful in the art as an end. 

GENERAL REVIEW BY COMPARISON. 

The several courses of instruction and study, outlined 
in the foregoing pages, should give pupils not only a 
fair knowledge of local and political geography, but also 
a knowledge of the physical features and phenomena of 
the earth of great interest and value. These physical 
facts have been learned one by one in the study of 
separate portions of the earth, and little attempt has 
been made to reduce them to scientific form, this being 
reserved in good part for physical geography. But, 
without waiting for their more scientific study, compara- 
many of these facts may be brought into closer ^ive Method, 
touch and relation by a comparative study of different 
sections of the earth. Indeed, it is only by such com- 
parisons that the relation of these facts to the develop- 
ment and life of man can be clearly seen. 

The writer once outlined a series of these compara- 
tive studies for the pupils in the eighth grade in a large 
city, and the results were very satisfactory, ^n Experi- 
Both teachers and pupils found an interest "^^"*- 
in the review which had previously been wanting in the 
re-study of continents and countries successively and in 
isolation, as presented in the text-book. 

We sketch below a few of these compara- compara- 
tive lessons, in full confidence in their geo- tive Lessons, 
graphic value if properly presented. 



292 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

Compare (i) Greenland and Cuba; (2) Iceland and 
Sicily; (3) the British and Japanese islands; (4) Korea 
and Nova Scotia; (5) the Scandinavian and Spanish 
peninsulas; (6) Alaska and Kamchatka; (7) Italy and 
the Malay peninsula ; (8) Alaska and the Scandinavian 
peninsula; (9) Arabia and Spain ; (10) The West Indies 
and the Philippine Islands; (11) Korea and Denmark; 
(12) Melville and Yucatan peninsulas; (13) the New 
England States and Texas ; (14) Illinois and CaHfornia ; 
(15) Michigan (southern peninsula) and Florida; (16) 
Canada and Mexico; (17) CaHfornia and Chile; (18) 
United States and Brazil; (19) United States and Eu- 
rope; (20) Australia and Europe; (21) China and Rus- 
sia; (22) China and the United States; (23) India and 
Canada; (24) France and Argentina; (25) the Mis- 
sissippi and the Amazon; (26) the Nile and the Gan- 
ges; (27) the Thames and the Tiber; (28) South 
America and North America ; (29) South America 
and Africa; (30) North America and Africa; (31) 
the Western and the Eastern continents ; (32) Atlan- 
tic and Pacific oceans ; (33) Atlantic and Indian oceans; 

(34) North Temperate and South Temperate zones; 

(35) Torrid and North Temperate zones; (36) North 
Frigid and South Frigid zones ; etc. 

In assigning these lessons the teacher should indicate 
by special topics the comparisons to be made. For 
. . example, *' Compare Spain and Arabia with 

Assignment ^ ^ ^ *■ 

of compara- rcspcct to (i) location ; (2) size; (3) contour; 
tive Lessons. ^^^ surface ; (5) latitude; (6) climate; (7) 
rain; (8) productions; (9) people." In assigning topics 
special pains should be taken to select those that include 
facts that can be discovered from the map, or learned 
from the text-book if not already known. The use of 



GEOGRAPHY. 293 

the same topics in all the lessons will result in a great 
waste of time, as well as in indefinite results. If pupils 
are referred to cyclopedias for facts, the reference 
should be so definite that little time need be wasted 
in finding the desired information. It is to be kept in 
mind that this is review work, and the cyclopedia has a 
small place. It is easy in geographical instruction to 
overload the pupils with facts whose special value is 
the facility with which they are forgotten ! These com- 
parative studies will make pupils more or less familiar 
with physical phenomena which will be presented in 
a more scientific manner in physical geography. 

This general review may properly end with a careful 
study of what is known as mathematical geography ; 
and also of those elements of physical geog- 
raphy included in the introductory pages of maticai and 
most modern ffeo2:raphies desisrned for use Physical 

U 1 ^U- ^ A U ^A ' Geography. 

m grammar schools. This study should m- 
clude the definitions of mathematical terms and a sim- 
ple explanation of such physical phenomena as the 
change of seasons, changes in the relative length of 
day and night, the distribution of rain, the location of 
desert regions, the influence of prevailing winds, the 
influence of climate on plant and animal life, the tides, 
ocean currents, etc., phenomena which have been made 
somewhat familiar in the study of the continents, 
oceans, zones, etc. It will not be found difficult to give 
eighth year pupils a general idea of the causes at work 
back of these phenomena, but it may be difficult to lead 
them to see how these causes operate, the modus ope- 
randi of their action. Pupils may, for example, 
learn that the tides are caused by the attrac- 
tion of the sun and the moon without seeing Jiow such 



294 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

attraction actually produces the tides.^ Even eighth 
year pupils are not ready for a scientific explanation of 
all physical phenomena. It is feared that too many of 
these pupils may be trained to repeat words without 
knowledge. 

III. Course in Physical Geography. 

Reference has been made to the recommendation of 
the Committee of Ten that physical geography be pur- 
sued in the upper grammar grades. There 

Physical , , r i • 

Geography sccms to be no general acceptance of this 
in High recommendation. Physical geography as a 

School* 

separate study was first introduced into the 
lower classes in high schools, and this is still the gen- 
eral practice, notwithstanding the recent pressure to 
push high-school studies down into grammar grades. 

Twenty years ago the writer was of the opinion that 

the study of elementary geography could wisely end with 

the seventh year of school, and that the eierhth 

Place in ■' ^ 

School year could be more profitably given to an 
Course. inspiring study of physical geography. He 
had not then seen clearly the great value of a review of 
elementary geography by the comparative method, a 
review that so admirably prepares the way for the 
scientific study of physical geography. When pupils 
enter school at five years and the elementary school 
course covers a period of nine years, physical geogra- 
phy may wisely be studied in the last year in the gram- 

1 It is believed that few teachers of physical geography know ^ow 
the attraction of the sun and moon produces tides. The writer has found 
few geographers who could explain why there are no perceptible tides in 
the Black and Caspian seas and the great lakes of North America. The 
explanation of the tides in most text-books is faulty. 



GEOGRAPHY. 295 

mar school course, the nintJi school year ; but when 
pupils enter school at six years of age and the elemen- 
tary course covers a period of only eight years, physical 
geography properly falls in the first year of the high 
school, which is the ;//;//// school year, as above.^ The 
ninth school year seems to be the proper ^inth 
time for the study of physical geography in School Year, 
graded schools. Of course, much depends on what is 
included in the science. The elements of the subject, 
presented in a simple manner, can be mastered without 
special difficulty in the eighth school year, while a more 
advanced treatment designated by the somewhat indefi- 
nite term, physiography, would be too difficult for even 
the ninth year. 

This suggests the importance of a clear understanding 
as to what is included in the science known as physical 
geography. We use the term herein to de- Nature of 
note the science of the earth's physical phe- the science, 
nomena as developed by Ritter and Guyot and embodied 
in the several excellent manuals now used in American 
schools, more generally in high schools. Physical geog- 
raphy as thus known is a scientific treatment of the 
physical features and phenomena of the earth, including 
its land masses, oceans, atmosphere, climate, and the 
forms and distribution of life. It presents known physi- 
cal facts in orderly groupings, with statements of the 
causes of the phenomena to which they relate. When 

1 In the discussion of this question the fact has been generally over- 
looked that the ninth school year is in several states the last year in 
the grammar school, while in other states the ninth school year is the first 
year in the high school. If Latin, Algebra, and Physical Geography are 
begun in the ninth school year, in some schools they will be begun in the 
grammar school, in others in the high school. 



296 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

properly taught, physical geography has been an at- 
tractive and fruitful study. 

It is evident that there are no fixed limits to such a 

science. Physiographers are engaged in an earnest in- 

No Fixed vestigation of " the physical environment of 

Limits. man," and new facts are being discovered and 
old facts explained. These facts seem so simple to those 
who have devoted years to their study, that no reason 
appears to them why they should not at once be taught 
to the children in the schools. It should, however, be 
kept in mind that the elements of other physical sciences 
must have a place in the high school ; and that this 
wealth of subject-matter requires careful limitation in 
school instruction. There is danger of overcrowding 
the school course in geography. 

It may be added that the successful teaching of physi- 
cal geography requires not only a good text-book, but 
Teaching Other adequate teaching appliances, such as 
Appliances, physical maps, globes, charts, photographs, 
lantern and lantern slides, models, etc. It goes without 
saying that the pupil's success will depend largely on 
the power and habit of accurate observation which he 
brings to the study. Memoriter work in such a study 
is failure. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

OTHER BRANCHES. 

In the eight preceding chapters the principles of 
teaching have been practically applied in methods of 
teaching three of the fundamental school arts, to wit : 
reading, language, and number, and one knowledge 
branch, geography. It musf suffice in this closing 
chapter to give a few suggestions as to the teaching 
of other branches. 

Biography. 

There seems to be a general agreement that biography 
has properly an earlier place in school instruction than 
history. The life of a person appeals to the 
interest of a child much earlier than the life piace than 
of a nation or people. Instruction of a most "'story. 
vital character may be given to children by means of 
the life stories of individuals who have been conspicu- 
ous in the progress of the race. Such instruction has 
an almost continuous place in the elementary course. 
But it is not clear that biography can be made a regular 
study during the fifth and sixth school years as a prepa- 
ration for history, as has been suggested. Biography 
that is a part of history is best presented in con- 
nection with historic events, as will be shown later. 
Historic characters are usually best seen in their historic 
setting. 

297 



298 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

When biography is taught in advance of history, no 
attempt should be made to force it to teach history. 

Relation to History propcr records the events in the 
History. development of national life ; ^ and it is diffi- 
cult to lead children to see the life of a nation or a 
people in the life of an individual. This is especially 
true of people who are separated by caste into distinct 
classes with few common life elements. One of the 
most intelligent superintendents of the country told 
the writer that his teachers were able to get Httle his- 
toric knowledge out of the biographies that were made 
a part of the course of study. They were obliged to 
study the history of each country represented, and 
then teach the historic facts thus learned into the 
biographies. It would seem better to let biography 
tell its own story, with its historic side lights. In due 
time the pupils must do what their teachers do, to wit : 
go to history for historic knowledge. It is not meant 
that biography throws no light on history. On the 
contrary, the life of a historic character may disclose 
important events in the life of a nation. 

Our next suggestion is that biography should afford 
pupils early training in getting information from books ; 

Book Train- ^^d, in grammar grades, biographical knowl- 
ing. edge should be obtained largely in this way. 
Preparatory instruction may be needed to interest 
pupils in the person whose biography is to be studied, 
and also to indicate the facts in his life most important to 
know ; but pupils should be sent increasingly to books for 
the Hfe stories with which they are to become familiar. 

1 " While biography narrates the career of individuals, civil history 
records the career of nations." — Dr. W. T. Harris in " Report of Com- 
mittee of Fifteen." 



OTHER BRANCHES. 299 



United States History. 



• The history of the United States may be systemati- 
cally studied in the seventh and eighth school years, 
with earlier introductory lessons. The first First Year's 
year of the course, in which the periods of dis- bourse, 
covery, settlement, and colonization are studied, will 
contain a considerable element of biography. This 
early history of the country abounds in heroic deeds 
and perilous adventures, which shed light upon the 
historic record. The text-book in history should be 
supplemented by brief manuals of biography to be 
read by the pupils. Due attention should be given 
to the location of events by means of maps. This is 
readily accomplished by the use of stencil maps drawn 
on the board and traced outlines to be filled by the 
pupils. 

The first year in history may thus be made an ex- 
cellent preparation for the study of the history of the 
nation, beginning with the successful struggle for inde- 
pendence and the organization of the national govern- 
ment. 

The study of history presents an opportunity for the 
needed training of pupils in book mastery; next to 
reading, the best opportunity in grammar ^^^.^.^^ 
grades. History is a systematic record of afforded in 
events in the progress of nations and peoples, ^°°^^^" 
and it is only by studying this record that a 
knowledge of past history is learned. The key to 
recorded history is the ability to obtain accurate knowl- 
edge from the printed page, and, to this end, it is impor- 
tant that pupils be trained in the study of historic 
manuals. An important aim in teaching history in the 



300 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

grammar school is the guiding of pupils in such book 
study. Much must be done by the teacher in the way 
of preparing pupils for the successful study of books, 
but nothing should be done that relieves them from the 
task of getting historic knowledge from the printed 
page. History is the one study par excellence to give 
pupils in the upper grammar grades effective training 
in book mastery. 

It is not meant that there should be no oral instruc- 
tion in history. On the contrary much oral instruction 
will be needed to prepare pupils for successful book 
study ; and, besides, the text-book used will need to be 
supplemented by oral lessons, as well as by graphic 
illustrations, such as engravings, chromos, lantern-slides, 
etc. 

Whatever may be the subject-matter of history taught 
in elementary schools, special pains should be taken to 
Historic give pupils clear and definite historic con- 
conceptions. ccptions. It is Surprising that so many pupils 
study history without really knowing " what it is about." 
A young girl lost in Greek history, when asked for the 
reason, replied, *' It is all Greek to me." 

This discloses a real difficulty in teaching history to 
children. The events narrated lie outside of their ex- 
perience. Historic conceptions have a large content, 
too large for young minds to grasp and handle. It is 
for this reason that the history of 2i people is more read- 
ily understood by the young than the record of govern- 
mental or state affairs. Hobbes's conception of the 
state as a Leviathan, endowed with individuality and 
organized self-activity, suggests the difficulty of the 
child in grasping a true notion of the state or nation. 
A conception of the state as a *' colossal man," or even 



OTHER BRANCHES. 301 

as a " collective man " is high thinking for a child. The 
state is too often the "unknown god" of which the 
young pupil gets at best only uncertain glimpses. 

Civics. 

It is a question whether a methodical study of civics 
should be undertaken below the high school or, more 
definitely, below the ninth school year. It 
is true that there are many facts relatmg to low High 
government that lie in the experience and school, 
under the observation of children. They are the sub- 
jects of parental control (or ought to be) and of the 
authority of the school as personified immediately by 
the teacher and more remotely by the principal, the 
superintendent, and the school board. If they live in 
the city, they become familiar with government as con- 
cretely represented by the policeman, and more vaguely 
by other city officials as the mayor, the police judge, 
etc. If they five in the country, they may at least hear 
of the constable and the justice of the peace. In these 
and other ways, children come in touch with authority, 
and, with proper instruction, they will come to know 
many facts that belong to the observational phase of 
civil government. It is, however, doubtful if anything 
is gained by early attempts to make these facts the 
basis for a formal study of state and national govern- 
ments. The pupils will be better prepared for such 
instruction later in the course. 

We are aware that this early instruction in civil gov- 
ernment is urged on the ground that it is a 
preparation for citizenship ; and, since many struction in 
pupils do not remain in school to the last year Civics, 
in the grammar course, it is important that instruction in 



302 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

civics be given early. It is easy to claim too much for 
the value of such early instruction. The knowledge 
thus acquired by children is too indefinite to be abiding ; 
and, besides, less than half of the pupils in the grammar 
schools of the country will ever cast a ballot or other- 
wise actually participate in government affairs. It is 
conceded that all intelligent persons, whether men or 
women, should have a general knowledge of the gov- 
ernment under which they live ; but it does not follow 
that, to this end, civics must be formally taught to 
children. They may learn from time to \\m^ facts re- 
specting local and state government, the duties of citizens, 
etc., but anything hke a systematic study of civil govern- 
ment cannot well be undertaken below the high school. 
It is generally agreed that the study of the national 
government should be begun in connection with United 
States history. The organization of the gov- 

Study of / , , n . r° 1 

National crnmcnt and the subsequent adoption or the 
Government. Constitution afford an opportunity for the 
pupils to obtain an intelHgent view of what may be 
called the mechanism of the government, including its 
three departments, — legislative, executive, and judicial, 
— the manner in which they are severally constituted, and 
their general duties. But experience shows that there 
are many questions on the very face of the constitution 
that are beyond the ability of even high school pupils, — 
to say nothing of the theory of government, including 
the origin and nature of the state, the principle of sov- 
ereignty, the theory of the separation of the powers, 
etc.^ The limitations of the ability of pupils in elemen- 

1 It was the writer's duty for several years to teach the United States 
Constitution to successive senior classes in college. There were students 
in even these classes who were not equal to the study. 



OTHER BRANCHES, 303 

tary schools should always be considered in determining 
the subject-matter of instruction. Nearly every school 
study has phases that correspond to the successive 
phases of mental development. 

Economics. 

The introduction of the study of economics in elemen- 
tary schools has few advocates among those who are 
students of the science, and especially those 

11 . . 1-11 Objections 

who have had experience m teachmg the sub- to study be- 
iect in colle2:e or university. There are two '°'^ "*sh 

\ . . 1 11 1 . School. 

objections to the attempt to teach the subject 
below the high school. These are (i) the small value 
of what can be taught to elementary pupils, and (2) the 
small number of elementary teachers who are compe- 
tent to teach even the elements of the science. In 
support of the first objection it may be said that not a 
few of the so-called essential principles of the science 
are based on unproved assumptions or are generalized 
from partial and insufficient data. It is difficult to pre- 
sent a theory of wealth or money or taxes or wages that 
is not called in question by students of economics. 
Many of the commonplaces given in elementary manu- 
als for schools are not true under all economic condi- 
tions. Moreover, all that will be of any practical value 
to so young pupils can be taught best incidentally, and 
usually in connection with related historic events. The 
second objection is not Hkely to be removed by institute 
instruction on the subject. It has been wisely said that 
no teacher ought to undertake this work '* who has not 
had some training in economic reasoning." 

It is believed to be wiser to leave instruction in even 



304 THE ART OF TEACHING, 

the elements of economics to the high school, and 
the development of the science to the university. Con- 
Eiements trovcrtcd subjccts-, which are often political 
in High questions, may wisely be left to the press, to 
School. ^^^ platform, and to economic theorists. It is 
not possible to settle all vital questions by the instruc- 
tion of children in the public schools. 



Physiology. 

It has widely been assumed by those who arrange 

elementary courses of study that a knowledge of anat- 

Assump- omy and physiology is of vital importance, 

schoo°^ and that the earlier this knowledge is taught 

Course, to children the better. These assumptions 
are urged with all the assurance that would be befitting 
if they were axioms of school training; and, so far as we 
are aware, they have rarely been questioned. It seems 
to be believed that there is health-giving power in a 
knowledge of the structure and functions of the organs 
of the human body, a beHef that has put instruction 
in physiology in nearly all grades of school. 

It may look Hke presumption for the writer to express 
the belief that a knowledge of the structure and func- 
tions of the internal or2:ans of the body is of 

Anatomy ^ •' 

not a Child's no practical value to young children. Neces- 
^'"'^^' sary hygienic information may be taught to 
children long before they can comprehend the physio- 
logical reasons for the facts learned. The practical rules 
relating to cleanliness, pure air, exercise, sleep, posture, 
temperance, etc., can be effectively taught children in 
advance of anatomy. Besides, the true aim of such in- 
struction in the lower grades of school is to train chil- 



OTHER BRANCHES. 305 

dren in hygienic habits^ in a proper observance of the 
laws of health. What is vitally needed in all this 
training is a realization of the fact that hygiene is an 
art to be practiced^ not a science to be studied. Good 
health is a vital end in school training. 

We have long been of the opinion that anatomy, 
especially the anatomy of the vital organs, should not 
be tausfht to children under twelve years of 

" , •' Anatomy 

age, an opinion that has been strengthened of the vitai 
by experience and observation.^ This view o^'g^ns. 
involves the fear that early instruction may result in 
habits of introspection, and thus interfere with the 
normal action of the vital organs and disturb vital pro- 
cesses, this being a certain danger in the case of chil- 
dren who are morbidly sensitive. This evil is aggravated 
by the use of charts and models as illustrations, par- 
ticularly those that represent diseased conditions of 
certain organs, as the brain, heart, and stomach. Ana- 
tomical charts are in use in some rural schools, with 
pupils five years old and upwards, that ought not to be 
shown to young children. A knowledge of the struc- 
ture and functions of the vital organs has no value to 
children that justifies the early introduction of these 
subjects into the school course. 

The systematic study of physiology properly falls in 
the two upper grammar grades, when a good manual 
can be used with advantage. All instruction 

1 . , 11. r ' ^ ^ ^°°^ Study. 

m physiology and hygiene of practical value 
in lower grades can best be taught orally. The use of 
a manual, when the systematic study of the science is 
undertaken, will afford an excellent opportunity for 

1 " Elements of Pedagogy," p. 158. 

ART OF TEACHING — 20 



306 THE ART OF TEACHING. 

giving grammar pupils needed training in the art of 
gaining knowledge from books. To this end, the 
pupils must be properly prepared for book study by 
oral instruction and observation ; and, to secure such 
study, they must be held by searching recitations to the 
mastery of assigned lessons. 



I xN D E X. 



N. B, — The figures refer to pages 



A-b-c method, the, i86. 
Abstract numbers, 246, 248. 
Abuses of class system, 139. 
Accuracy and rapidity in arithmetic, 

255- 
Acquisition of knowledge, 29. 

Action, 46, 81. 

Activity, occasioning, 39; self, 10, 
47; the pupil's, 10. 

Adaptation of instruction to capa- 
bility of learner, 58. 

Adults and infants, 58. 

Advantages of class instruction, 138. 

Aimless drills, 87. 

Aimless teaching, 22, 23. 

Algebra, introduction to, 268. 

Allied subjects, 78. 

American education, problem 



in. 



19. 



Amount of written work, 165. 

Analysis the initial process, 73. 

Analytic methods of instruction, 72. 

Anatomy not a child's study, 304. 

Ancillary muscles, the, 162. 

Annual interest, 267. 

Appliances in physical geography, 
teaching, 296. 

Application of knowledge, 29. 

Application or use as a test, 91. 

Appropriation, in bodily growth, 
135; individual power of, 134; 
self-activity in, 135. 

Aristotle, 47. 

Arithmetic, 242-270 (see Number'), 
255-268; advantage of using 
book in third year, 256; aim, 
rapidity, and accuracy in all pro- 
cesses, 255 ; algebra in the 



grammar school, 269; algebra, 
introduction to, 268-270; algebra 
not lower than the eighth school 
year, 270; an early Cleveland ex- 
periment, 268; annual interest 
important, 267; applications of 
fundamental processes, 259; avoid, 
ance of alleged error easy, 259; 
compound numbers, 265; first 
lessons in number, 245-254 (see 
Number)', first study of percent- 
age, 267; fraction processes in 
fifth year, 256; fractions with 
small terms, 257; grammar school 
course, 262-268; importance of 
the scientific study of arithmetic, 
263; indicated solution of prob- 
lems, 261 ; introduction of techni- 
cal algebra a mistake, 269; logical 
verbiage to be avoided, 262; no 
mental discipline of higher value, 
263; number ideas caught, 259; 
numerous problems for oral solu- 
tion, 261; objections to the nib- 
bling plan, 259; order of processes, 
257; oral analysis to be simple, 
262; rational algebra needed, 
270; reasons urged for teaching 
all processes together, 258; re- 
ductions proposed in percentage, 
265; rules through processes, 
260; scientific arithmetic needed, 
267; scientific study of percent- 
age, 267; subjects in grammar 
school course, 263; tests of the 
value of subjects, 264; the ele- 
mentary course, 255-262; the 
" mental arithmetic revival," 262; 



11 



THE ART OF TEACHING, 



third and fourth years the skill 
period, 256; training in fourth 
year, 256; training in third year, 
255; union of oral and written 
exercises, 260; value of percent- 
age training, 266, 267; what 
omissions in percentage are feasi- 
ble, 266. 

Arnold, Sarah Louise, 189, 206. 

Arrested development, 245. 

Art, ideals in learning, 48; no art 
learned by simple practice, 49. 

Art of study acquired by study, 
130. 

Art of testing, 99, lOi ; of class 
teaching, 133. 

Arts involved in reading, 185. 

Assignment of lessons, 126, 127, 292; 
teacher's fidelity to, 127. 

Assumptions of individualism, 133; 
of the modern school, 133. 

Attention, 34; concentration of, 
209; no recipe for securing, 34. 

Author's questions, 100. 

Automatic habit, 45, 185, 186. 

Automatic practice, 49. 

Axioms of teaching, 36, 58. 

Bain, Alexander, 9, 131. 

Best literature to be read, 209. 

Biography, 297, 298; book mastery 
in, 298; book study, 298; earlier 
place than history, 297; historic 
characters in historic settings, 
297; history in, 298; in history, 
299; in physiology, 305; not a 
regular study, 297; relation to 
history, 298. 

Blackboard lessons, 195, 196; order 
of, 196. 

Bookkeeping business, the, 178. 

Book study, instruction and, 117- 
129; aim of, 119; a model ex- 
ample — lesson on the reign of 
Henry VIII., 127; art of study 
not taught, 130; assignment of 
lessons, 126; assignment should 
be definite, suggestive, and inspir- 
ing, 126; chief value of writer's 
school and college training, 119; 
children's reading circles, 1 17; 
decline in book power, 130; dia- 



gram of instruction and, 129; 
Dr. Bain's suggestion, 131 ; first 
study of subjects narrow, 131 ; 
German oral teaching, 119; good 
memory in recitations, 127; in- 
struction preparatory to study, 
123; less instruction needed in 
information studies, 124; me- 
moriter study, 120; memoriter 
work in oral teaching, 121; na- 
ture and extent of preparatory 
instruction, 123; neglect of, 119; 
old-time regime, 117; over-in- 
struction to be avoided, 124; 
place for memorizing language, 
120; power to read books, 118; 
problem in American education, 
119; proper use of text-books, 
121, 122, 298, 299; reading, the 
key to recorded knowledge, 118; 
Sir Oracle on text-books, 117; 
study crowded out of the course, 
131; study intensive reading, 119; 
subversion of, 123; teacher's fidel- 
ity to assignment, 127; teaching 
history in rural schools, 128; the 
pupil's study determined by the 
recitation, 130; training of book 
power an important end, 124; 
two errors in use of text-books, 
128; union of instruction and 
study, 119; use of the text-book 
by pupils, 117. 

Boone, Richard G., 138. 

Bugbear tests, 171. 

Busy work, 164. 

Calling on pupils, methods of, 144; 

by numbers, 143. 
Card devices for caUing on pupils, 

151, 152. 
Careful vs. careless written work, 169, 

214, 215. 
Careless written work, 169, 214. 
Catechetic tests, 95. 
Change of activity, 167. 
Changes in mental activity, 36. 
Child limitations, 67. 
Child psychology, 17. 
Children not little adults, 17; not 

philosophic spiders, 106. 
Children's reading circles, 117. 



INDEX. 



Ill 



Child study, 18-20; an expert prob- 
lem, 19; caution as to use of 
recorded observations, 20; few 
associations possible, 18; interpre- 
tation of child phenomena difficult, 
18; mosttitles" chaff," 19; practi- 
cal value of syllabic averages, 20; 
scientific value of associations, 
18. 
Chorus singing as a test, 10 1. 
Civics, 301-303; below the high 
school, 301 ; early instruction in, 
301 ; facts learned from time to 
time, 302; observational phase, 
oral, 301 ; study of the national 
government, 302; the constitution, 
302; value of such instruction over- 
estimated, 302. 
Class book of geography, 1 10. 
Classes, teaching pupils in, 143-159 

(see Teaching pupils'). 
Classification of pupils, 181 ; of 

words, 201. 
Class instruction, 132-141; abuses 
of class system, 139; advantages 
of class instruction, 138; an ideal 
class exercise, 136; a preparation 
for life, 138; art of class teaching, 
133; assumptions of the modern 
school, 133; assumptions verified, 
134; attention of entire class 
secured, 136; attention to indi- 
vidual differences, 137; common 
powers and needs, 133; correc- 
tion needed, 135; correction not 
abolition, 139; double action in 
class teaching, 137; individual in- 
struction, 133; individual instruc- 
tion in class work, 137; individual 
power of appropriation, 134; indi- 
vidual work, 139, 140; inequality 
in different studies, 141 ; inequahty 
in the school arts, 141 ; number of 
pupils in a class, 132; objections 
to class instruction, 136; physical 
development a parallel, 135; re- 
sults of common disciplines of 
school and college, 134; self-ac- 
tivity in appropriation, 135; skill- 
ful presentation of subject-matter, 
136; so-called trials of individual 
instruction, 140; the graded school 



problem, 142; unequal progress of 
pupils, 141. 

Class teaching, art of, 133, 156, 157, 
158. 

Cleveland experience, 109. 

CUnton, DeWitt, 86. 

Comenian maxim a half-truth, 48. 

Committee of Ten, 213, 260. 

Committee on Composition, Har- 
vard, 213. 

Communication of knowledge, 67. 

Comparative method of geographi- 
cal study, 292. 

Complementary terms, lesson and 
recitation, 57. 

Complete arithmetic, scientific, 26. 

Compound numbers, 265. 

Concentration and correlation, 76- 
80; allied subjects within a group, 
78; "central core," 77; charac- 
teristic feature of the method, 77; 
coordinate groups of studies, 77; 
coordinate studies more and more 
separate, 79; coordination of 
studies excludes subordination, 
77; correlation within coordinate 
groups, 78; "cross references," 
79; De Garmo's three cores, 77; 
facts in different coordinate groups, 
78; geography and history, 80; 
nature lessons and literature, 79; 
Red Riding Hood, 79; unifica- 
tion (concentration) best effected 
in actual instruction, 79; unifica- 
tion most helpful in primary in- 
struction, 79; Ziller's central core, 

77- 

Concentration and combinations, fan- 
tastic, 108. 

Concert exercises, 84, 86, 88, 100. 

Concert method, the, 154-156. 

Concert testing, 100, loi. 

Consciousness, facts of, 14. 

Consecutive method, the, 145-148. 

Correction of written exercises, 227, 
228, 238. 

Correlation of oral lessons, 114. 

Course of instruction, true, 37 ; abuse 
of spiral principle, 38; primary 
knowledge to scientific knowledge, 
37; psychical order, 38; the spiral 
theory, 38. 



IV 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



Courses, language, 223-241. 
Cramming, gradgrind, 45. 
Crucial test of devices, 25. 
Cycles of philosophy, 12. 

Daily exercises in language, separate, 
213. 

Decline in book power, 130. 

Deduction, 64. 

Deductive method, 74. 

Definitions in geography, 281 ; of 
mathematical terms, 282, 293. 

De Garmo, Charles, 77, 106. 

Denominate numbers, 247. 

Descriptive text, 285. 

Development of mental power, 28; 
of special powers, 29. 

Diacritical marks, 190, 202. 

Diagram of instruction and study, 1 29. 

Dictation exercises, 224, 237, 238. 

Direct or telling method, 67. 

Double action in reading, 137. 

Drill, the, 53, 81-89; abuses of the 
drill, 87-89; automatic action, 81 ; 
clear ideals in practice, 84; con- 
cert drills, 84, 86, 88; concert 
repetition, 84; ends, 81 ; examples 
of word repetition, 82; Lancaster 
system, the, 85; number drills 
with blocks and other objects, 88; 
old-time word repetition, 82; par- 
rot exercises, 84; Repetitio juater 
studiorum, maxim of the Jesuits, 
85; repetition and practice the 
drill processes, 81, 82; repetition 
of acts, not words, 82; repetition 
of knowing acts or processes, 84; 
skill acquired by guided practice, 
84; skill in the school arts, 81; 
skill trained by guided action, 81 ; 
word repetition to be avoided, 84. 

Drills in reading, two ends of, 207. 

Eastern continent, 286. 

Economics, 303, 304; elements in 
high school, science in the uni- 
versity, 304; incidental instruction 
best, 303; objections to formal 
study below the high school, 303. 

Education, definitions, 7, 8, 9; differ- 
ent senses, 9; philosophy of, 11 ; 
systems of, 12. 



Elementary course in arithmetic, 255- 
262. 

Elementary manual of geography, 
use of, 280. 

Ends, desire for skill inborn, 31; 
development of power, 28; kinds 
of knowledge in school course, 
27; knowledge the result of know- 
ing, 27; phases of knowing, 28; 
power to acquire, 29; power to 
apply, 30; power to express, 30; 
skill as an end, 31 ; special direc- 
tions, 29; teacher's knowledge, 
thorough and fresh, 27; three 
fundamental ends — knowledge, 
power, and skill, 26; training skill, 
30; utility of knowledge, 28; 
trinity of, 26. 

Ends in teaching, 22; a measure of 
success, 23; a test of devices and 
methods, 23; David's shng, 26; 
discarded devices and systems, 26; 
end, the crucial test of devices, 25; 
experimenting on children, 24; 
first question in pedagogy, 22; 
"Get the best," 25; immediate 
and subjective, 11, 23; the end 
guides the process, 22; three 
questions before trial of new de- 
vice, 25; trial not a sure test, 24; 
Saul's armor, 26. 

Ends of teaching, not ultimate and 
philosophic, 13, 23. 

English grammar, 92. 

Enriching course of study, 131. 

Estimate plan in Cincinnati, 176. 

Ethics, relation to teaching, 16. 

" Examination knowledge," 94. 

Examinations, written, 160, 169. 

Examinations for promotion of pupils, 
172-181; evil results of, 173; in- 
fluence on instruction and study, 
174. 

Excessive drills, 87. 

Experience, personal, 44. 

Experimenting on children, 24. 

Experiments, Krapelin's, 109. 

Expression of knowledge, 29, 211, 

Expression, oral before written, 167. 

Extemporaneous written work, 214. 

Eye of teaching, the, 90. 

Eye opener, the written test an, 178. 



INDEX. 



Facility of expression end of lan- 
guage training, 219. 

Factor processes, 253. 

Fads and hobbies, 12. 

Fichte, Johann, 12. 

First lessons in reading, 196-203 
(see Reading) , 

First number ideas, 242, 243. 

Fitch, Sir J. G., 7. 

Fitting questions to pupils, 150. 

Five formal steps, Herbart's, 112. 

Formal discipline, 40. 

Formal exercises in language, 213. 

Formal steps in teaching, 112. 

Formal test exercises, 90. 

Fractional parts, 250. 

Fraction, idea of, 250. 

Fraction processes in fifth school 
year, 256. 

Froebel, 17, 18. 

Galton, Francis, 244. 

Garfield, General James A., 237. 

Gate of sense, the, 67. 

General concept, 62. 

Generalization, 62. 

General review by comparative 
method, 291. 

Genesis and nature of number, 242. 

Geography, 271-296; an experiment 
with satisfactory results, 291; 
assignment of comparative lessons, 
292; causal relation of facts, 279; 
definitions, how taught, 281 ; def- 
initions of mathematical terms 
omitted, 282; drawing of maps 
from memory, 289; early lessons 
in nature, 275; elementary book 
course; 281-294; excursions be- 
yond the horizon, 279; future 
needs of pupils as individuals 
unknown, 272; free-hand map 
drawing, 289; general review by 
comparative method, 291 ; home 
geography, 275-280; imagining 
unseen objects beyond the horizon, 
282; individualism, 272; instruc- 
tion in home geography, 276; 
lessons on outline map of the 
world, 283; lessons on the globe, 
283; map drawing, 287; map 
drawing as an art, 288; map draw- 



ing easily overdone, 291 ; map 
questions in book, 287; map read- 
ing, 286; mathematical terms, 
293; mental map image, 284; 
nature bound by the horizon line, 
279; nature in cities, 276; na- 
ture stories and poems, 275; no 
invariable order in elementary 
geography, 271 ; no primary geog- 
raphy can be written, 279; out- 
line of lessons in home geography, 
277-278; physical features and 
political divisions, 286; physical 
geography, 294-296; physical 
phenomena, 293; review drills, 
287; review of oral course, 281; 
scientific study of physical phe- 
nomena, 272; special topics, 292; 
specimen comparative lessons, 291 ; 
study of the grand divisions, 285- 
286; teaching appliances, 296; 
theories as to subject-matter, 272; 
the physical and the human sides, 
271; the pupil's world of home, 
275; three courses in geography, 
273; tides, 293; true end of map 
drawing, 289; two views as to 
order of instruction, 271; use of 
an elementary geography, 280; 
use of stencils and traced outlines, 
290; value of geography as a 
school study, 273; value of traced 
outlines, 290. 

Geography and history, 80. 

Geography, phases of, 35, 37. 

" Get the best," 25. 

Globe, lessons on, 283. 

Graded school problem, the, 142. 

Graded system, the, 142. 

Gradgrind process of cramming, 45. 

Grammar delusion, 218. 

Grammar, function and place of tech- 
nical, 216, 217. 

Grand divisions, study of, 285-288. 

Greenwood, J. M., 247, 248. 

Groups of objects numbered without 

• counting, 249. 

Grube method, the, 251, 252. 

Guiding principles of teaching, 13. 

Habits, reading, 193, 206. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 18, 19, 162. 



VI 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



Hamilton, Sir William, 72. 
Hand-raising in class exercises, 150. 
Harris, W. T., 8, 13, 77, 138, 248, 

298. 
Hill, Thomas, 249. 
Hinsdale, B. A., 8, 212, 217, 220. 
Historic conceptions, 300. 
History and biography, 298. 
History and geography, 80. 
History, United States, 299, 301 (see 

United States history^. 
Hobbes's Leviathan, 300. 
Hobbies and fads, 12. 
Hoffding, Harold, 15, 45. 
Home geography, 2*75-280. 
Home study and work, 163, 164, 166. 
Horizon geography, 279. 
Hudson River valley, 164. 
Human phenomena in geography, 

271-273. 
Husking thought, 70. 

Ideal class exercise, an, 136. 

Ideals in learning the arts, 48; form- 
ing correct ideals essential step, 
48; skill in realizing, 49. 

Ideals in art, 84; in practice, 84. 

Imagination in play, 47. 

Imaging numbers, 244. 

Imitation, art phase of, 47; in in- 
fancy, 47; instinctive and volun- 
tary, 46. 

Immediate ends, 1 1. 

Incidental instruction, 96, 212. 

Incidental testing, 90. 

Individual differences, attention to, 

137- 
Individual instruction, 133, 137, 140. 
Individualism, 133, 272. 
Induction, 63. 
Infants and adults, 58. 
Influence of tests, 94. 
Information and knowledge, 27, 33, 

68. 
Information readers, 209. 
Insight, philosophic, 12. 
Inspection, measurement by, 245. 
Inspiration exercises, 158. 
Institute management, extremes in, 

157- 
Interest, 34. 
Introduction, 7. 



Instruction, 52; true course of, 37. 

Instruction and book study, 117- 
131 (see Book study). 

Instruction independent of text- 
book, 104. 

Instruction, methods of, 58-80 (see 
Methods) ; analytic and synthetic 
methods, 72; concentration and 
correlation, 76; direct or telling 
method, 67; illustrative method, 
69; indirect or Socratic method, 
62; inductive and deductive 
methods, 74; objective method, 
59; special methods, 80. 

Instruction, oral, 102-115 (see 
Oral instruction). 

Instruction preparatory to study, 
123, 124; to reading, 208. 

Introduction to algebra, 268-270. 

Inverse processes, 253. 

James, Professor William, 14, 15. 
Jesuit maxim, 85. 
Judd, Charles H., 79. 
Judging and judgment, 63. 

Keeping pupils busy, 164. 

Key, reading the, 118. 

Knowledge and information, 27, 33, 
68; kinds of, 27, 59; measure of 
utility, 28; not transferable, 33; 
phases of, 28, 37; philosophic, 
II; psychical, 15; or power, 
leading aim, 43; the result of 
knowing, T,y, utility, 28. 

Knowledge of processes in learning 
an art, 49. 

Knowledge tested by its expression, 

Knowledge, principal one, 34; axiom 
of teaching, 36; changes in activi- 
ties of mental powers, 36; how 
taught, 35 ; natural order, sense 
to reason, 37, 38; phases of 
knowledge, 37, 273; primary 
ideas and facts, 35; scientific 
knowledge, 35, 37; sequence of 
knowledge, 38; spiral theory, 38; 
true course of instruction, 37. 

Laboratory method, 61. 
Laboratory research, i^. 



INDEX. 



VU 



Ladd, George T., 15. 

Lancaster system, the, 85, 144. 

Language as a school art, 210. 

Language lessons, 218; manuals,2i9. 

Language training, 210-222; advan- 
tages of dictation exercises, 237; 
all primary lessons should end in 
expression, 211 ; appeals to expe- 
rience, 217; attainments in two 
years, 212; basis of stories, 231; 
careless written work, 214; care- 
ful writing required, 215; Com- 
mittee of Ten, 213; common 
observation, 227; correction oP 
papers, 228; cut-feed lessons, 
219; descriptions from questions, 
228; dictation exercises, 224; 
division of school year into four 
periods, 224; division of time, 
240; equal division of school pe- 
riod, 215; examples for dictation, 
238; extemporaneous writing, 
214; facility first end, 220; five 
fundamental disciplines, 224; five 
series of exercises, 223; formal 
exercises in language, 213; four 
synthetic series, 225; fundamen- 
tal principles, 210; grammar de- 
lusion, 218; Harvard Committee 
on Composition, 213; Herbert 
Spencer, 217; incidental training 
not sufificient, 212; language ac- 
quired by synthetic activity, 221; 
language exercises should be pro- 
gressive, 223; language lessons 
should face facility, 219; lan- 
guage the most practical of the 
school arts, 210; language train- 
ing in rural schools, 239; lan- 
guage value of grammar, 217; let- 
ters, 236; Lindley Murray, 216, 
217; materials, courses, and meth- 
ods, 223-241 ; nature lessons, 227 ; 
nature of language training, 218; 
notebooks, 214; observation les- 
sons, 225 ; outline and characcer 
of synthetic exercises, 225-241 ; 
outline of language exercises, 241 ; 
pictures as objects of sight, 229; 
picture exercises, 229; place of 
technical grammar, 216; Profes- 
sor Marsh, 220; Professor Suliot's 



outline, 235; regular place in 
program, 215; reproduction of 
stories, 234; rural schools, 239- 
241; selection of stories, 234; 
separate daily exercises in lan- 
guage, 213; series of letter exer- 
cises, 236; sight and imagination, 
231; six years for language, 215; 
skill in using written forms, 220; 
social and business correspond- 
ence, 227; speech and writing 
synthetic, 221; stories from out- 
lines, 235; stories in first and 
second years, 233; stories to be 
memorized, 233; telling stories 
by pupils, 212; "The Forgiven 
Debt," 236; the uq-v,' vf ox d facility, 
219; the tongue before the pen, 
212; the written exercise, 227; 
three-section plan in rural schools, 
239; training first two years, 210; 
variety of practice, 223; W. D. 
Whitney, 217; written exercises, 
230. 
Leading aim, knowledge or power? 

43. 
Leigh type, 188. 

Lesson, the, 55; oral, a unit, 107. 
Lesson plans, general, 109; special, 

no. 
Lesson unified knowledge, a, 108. 
Lessons, assignment of, 126. 
Lessons in home geography, outlines 

of, 277. 
Letter writing, 236, 237. 
Literature and nature lessons, 79. 
Literature in reading, 206. 
Lowell, James Russell, 118. 

McClellan, James A., 244. 

McMurry, Charles A., 108. 

Mann, Horace, 152. 

Map drawing, 287-291. 

Map images, 284. 

Map questions in text-book, 287. 

Map reading, 286, 

March, P'rancis A., 220. 

Material, language, 223-241. 

Maxim of elementary instruction, 44 ; 

of the Jesuits, 85. 
Measurement, quantitative, 243 ; 

qualitative, 243. 



VI 11 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



Measurement of concrete magni- 
tudes, 245. 

Memoriter methods, 43, 120. 

Memoriter teaching, 91, 120, 121. 

Memory in recitations, 127. 

Memory, verbal, 91. 

Mendenhall, T. C, 119, 264. 

Mental arithmetic, 262, 

Mental energy and activity, 39. 

Mental habits, 41. 

Mental power, 39, 43. 

Mental problems, written solution 
of, 168. 

Method grinder, pedantry of the, 62. 

Methods of instruction, 58-80 ; 
abuses of the objective method, 
62; analysis and synthesis corre- 
lates, 72; analytic and synthetic 
methods, 72; analytic method not 
general, 73; axiom of teaching, 
58; biography and history syn- 
thetic, 73; child limitations, 67; 
communication of knowledge, 67; 
concentration and correlation, 76- 
80 (see Concentration, special 
methods) ; condition of communi- 
cation, 67; conditions to be ob- 
served in teaching knowledge by 
language, 68; deduction, 64; di- 
rect method and the proper acts 
of knowing, 70; direct or telling 
method, 67; facts of judgment, 
particular and general, 63; gener- 
alization, general concept, 62; 
how new ideas can be taught, 60; 
husking thought, 70; illustrative 
instruction not objective, 69; in- 
direct method also called the train- 
ing method, 64; indirect or So- 
cratic method, 62; induction, 63; 
induction and deduction defined, 
75; inductive and deductive 
methods, 74; inductive instruction 
synthetic, deductive analytic, 75; 
infant in perceptive phase, adult 
in scientiHc, 58; initial process 
gives name, 73; judging, judg- 
ment, 63; knowledge and infor- 
mation, 68; limitation in higher 
instruction, 66; method defined, 
59; method of Socrates, 65; misuse 
of inductive method, 76; mind's 



impulse to pass from sense to 
reason, 64; natural order involved, 
66; objective method, 61; parable 
defined, 69; primary ideas and 
facts taught objectively, 61; prim- 
ary ideas, how formed, 66; primary 
ideas not taught by words, 60; 
seven primary maxims, 65; swing- 
ing on the gate of sense, 67; 
teacher's preparation, analytic, 74; 
the general and the universal 
reached by thinking, three distinct 
methods of teaching knowledge, 
59 ; three kinds of knowledge, 59 ; 
training maxim, 64; transitional 
phase, 58; two processes usually 
united, 74; union of methods, 70; 
universal truths reached by reason- 
ing, 63; use of inductive and de- 
ductive methods limited, 75; use 
of method, 70; what determines 
method, 59. 

Methods of teaching, 35, 58-80. 

Methods of testing, 95-101 (see 
Testing) . 

Mill, John Stuart, 7, 8. 

Mind's impulse, the, 64. 

Model example, a, 127, 128. 

Modeling and molding, 50. 

Modern psychologists, 15. 

Modern psychology, 15. 

Modified vowels, 200. 

Monitorial and mutual instruction, 86. 

Motive, reading, 206. 

Motor impulse, 47. 

Moulton, Richard G., 118. 

Miiller, Max, 222. 

Miinsterberg, Hugo, 15, 16. 

Murray, Lindley, 216, 217. 

Muscles, the ancillary, 162. 

Narrow utilitarianism, 44. 

Natural order, from sense to reason, 

37- 

Nature, early lessons in, 275. 

Nature lessons and literature, 79. 

Nature lessons (language), 227. 

Nature stories and poems, 275. 

Necessary conditions of oral instruc- 
tion, 104. 

Nervousness of pupils increasing, 
163. 



INDEX. 



IX 



New psychology, the, 13, 14. 

NibbHng plan, the, 259. 

Non-instruction exercises, 102. 

North America, 285. 

Notebooks, 214. 

Number, first lessons in, 245-254; 
abstract numbers, 246; denomi- 
nate numbers, 247; drills on ab- 
stract numbers, 248; ends to be 
attained, 252; first ideas qualita- 
tive, 243; first number ideas, 242; 
four number processes, 253; frac- 
tional parts, 250; genesis and 
nature of number, 242; Grube 
method, 251; habit of imaging 
numbers, 244; idea of a fraction 
developed, 250; idea of ratio " the 
result of development," 244; in- 
verse processes, 253; little num- 
ber training first two years, 25 1; 
measurement by inspection, 245; 
measurement of concrete magni- 
tudes, 244; numbering groups of 
objects, 249; numbers as wholes, 
250; objections to method veri- 
fied, 252; objective exercises lim- 
ited, 247; objects not numbers, 
247; primary course in numbers, 
249-254; ratio of concrete magni- 
tudes, 246; sensing numbers, 245 ; 
special value of perceptive power, 
250; three initial steps in teach- 
ing number, 246; two factor pro- 
cesses, 253; visualizing numbers, 
244; Waltham experiment, 249; 
weights and measures, 248. 

Number ideas caught, 259. 

Number of pupils in a class, 132. 

Number processes, the four, 253; 
natural order, 247. 

Objections to class instruction an- 
swered, 136. 

Objective method, 59; definition of, 
61. 

Objective number training, 247. 

Objects not numbers, 247. 

Observation lessons (language), 225- 
228. 

Observational phase of civics, 301. 

Old pedagogical error, revival of, 17. 

Old-time regime, the, 117. 



Old-time school, the, 139; writing 
in, 161. 

Oral and written processes, 260. 

Oral geography, review of, 281. 

Oral instruction, 102-115; adapta- 
tion of methods to capability of 
pupils, 109; adaptation of subject- 
matter to capability, 106; a diffi- 
cult art, I02; a lesson unified 
knowledge, io8; bad advice, 1 1 1 ; 
children not philosophic spiders, 
106; correct written work, n6; 
correlation of lessons, 114; Dies- 
terweg quoted, 113; excursions 
into other studies by teacher, 
112; fantastic concentration com- 
binations, 108; few diversions, 
these under control, iii; fidelity 
to preparation, no; general les- 
son plans not wise, 109; Herbart's 
five formal steps, 1 12; increasing 
demand for, 102; instruction ex- 
ercises, aim and method, 103; 
instruction independent of text- 
book, 104; Krapelin's experi- 
ments, 109; lesson plans early 
hobbies, 109; methods of teach- 
ing to be determined, 108; myths, 
103; non-instruction exercises, 
102; objection to formal steps in 
teaching, 112; opinion of foreign 
educators, 113; oral instruction 
in lowest grades, 104; oral lesson 
a unit, 107, 108; order of presen- 
tation, 107; power to know 
trained through knowing, 103; 
proper sequence of lessons in 
series, 1 14; psychical sequence of 
facts, not the logical order, 107; 
relation to art exercises, 104; re- 
production by application, 116; 
reproduction of the lesson, 112- 
116; requisites for success in 
oral teaching, ,104; reviews, 115; 
sensation exercises, 103; skillful 
oral teaching requires prepara- 
tion, 1 10; special topics prefer- 
able, 1 10; subject-matter of lesson 
to be determined, 106; teacher's 
function, iii; teacher's prepara- 
tion, 105; teaching the lesson, 
IIO-H2; thorough and fresh 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



knowledge, 105; weakness of 
American oral teaching, 113; 
written outlines of lessons, io6 ; 
written reproductions and re- 
views, 115; Ziller's central core, 
77, 108. 

Oral problems, numerous, 261. 

Oral search, the, 57. 

Oral test, the, 100. 

Order, natural, 37, 66. 

Order of number processes, 247. 

Outline maps, lessons on, 283. 

Outlines of language exercises, 226, 
241. 

Outlines of lessons in home geogra- 
phy, 277. 

Overtasking pupils, 166. 

Parrot repetition, 84. 

Pauslen, Frederick, 120. 

Payne, W. H., 8. 

Pen and pencil, use of, 160; exces- 
sive, 162. 

Percentage, omissions in, 265-267. 

Personal influence, 158. 

Pestalozzi, 17, 65. 

Phases of knowing and knowledge, 
28, 273. 

Philosophic insight, 12. 

Philosophic knowledge, absence of, 
II. 

Philosophic spiders, 106. 

Philosophy, cycles of, 1 2 ; function of, 
10; no Hght on teaching as an art, 
II; pedagogic value of, 10; rela- 
tion to art, II; relation to science, 
1 1 ; relation to systems of educa- 
tion, 12; schools of, 12; science of 
the sciences, 12; the true philos- 
ophy, 1 2 ; ultimate unity, 1 1 ; 
value of, 12. 

Phonetic System, Pitman's, 189. 

Phonic difficulties, 199. 

Phonic drills, 198. 

Phonic Method, the, 188. 

Phonic System, Robinson's, 189. 

Physical geography, 294-296. 

Physical phenomena in geography, 
271, 272, 293. 

Physiological research, 16. 

Physiology, 16, 161, 304-306; anat- 
omy not a child's study, 304- 



305; assumptions as to practical 
value, 304; hygienic instruction, 
305; objectionable charts and 
models, 305 ; relation to teaching, 
16; testimony of, 161; systematic 
study of physiology, 305 ; value of 
facts, 16. 

Picture exercises, 229-231. 

Political economy, 303, 304 (see 
Economics). 

Porter, Noah, 15. 

Pothooks, 161. 

Power tested by its exercise, 92. 

Power to read books, 118. 

Preparation for oral teaching, teach- 
er's, 105. 

Presuppositions in methods of teach- 
ing, 21. 

Primary geography, no true, 279. 

Primary ideas, 60, 61. 

Primary instruction, 17; application 
in methods, 17; value of psy- 
chology in, 17. 

Primary maxims, 65. 

Primary Reading, 183-194 (see 
Reading) . 

Principle C)ne (see Knowledge), 34- 
38. 

Principle Two, 39-45; all studies 
have not equal value, 42; avail- 
able in all related activities, 41; 
comparative value of school stud- 
ies, 42; formal discipline, 40; 
gradgrind process of cramming, 
45; knowledge or power leading 
aim, 43; maxim of elementary in- 
struction, 44; memoriter methods, 
43; mental habits, 41; mental 
power abiding, 43; mental power 
developed by activity, 39; narrow 
utilitarianism, 44; personal ex- 
perience, 44; power and tendency, 
39; teaching the occasioning of 
right activity, 39; training power 
leading aim in teaching knowl- 
edge, 43; truth in neither ex- 
treme, 41 ; soul power the abiding 
practical result, 44; superficial 
empiricist, 43; universal, 40. 

Principle Three, 45-51 (see Skill). 

Principles of Teaching, 16, 32-51; 
basal, 16; conditions, 34; degrees 



INDEX. 



XI 



of certitude, 'T,'},; guiding princi- 
ples few and simple, 32; knowing 
as an act, T,y, knowledge and 
information, 7,y, knowledge not 
transferable, -T^y knowledge the 
result of knowing, 33; word cram- 
ming, 34.. 45- 

Print or script, 195. 

Problem in American education, 
119. 

Problem of the rural school, 140. 

Processes, teaching, 52-57; blend- 
ing teaching, 54; definite terms 
needed in pedagogy, 56; instruc- 
tion, 52; proper use of terms, 
lesson and recitation, 56; repeti- 
tion and practice, 53; teaching 
exercises, 5 7 ; the drill — its ends, 
53; the eye of teaching, 53; the 
lesson and the recitation comple- 
mentary exercises, 57; the lesson, 
including instruction and drills, 
55; the recitation, 55; the term 
7-ecitation used too indefinitely, 
56; the test, its ends, 53; the 
vitalizing oral search, 57; three 
teaching exercises, — instruction, 
drill, and test, 54, 55; three teach- 
ing processes — instruction, drill- 
ing, and testing, 52. 

Program, language, in school, 215. 

Progress of pupils, unequal, 141. 

Promiscuous method, the, 148-153. 

Promotion examinations, 172-181; 
classification of pupils difficult, 
181; estimate plan in Cincinnati, 
176; evil results of, 173; influ- 
ence on mstruction and study, 1 74 ; 
intelligent supervision needed, 
177; limiting conditions, 173; 
meaning of proposed reforms, 181, 
182; plans for correcting evils, 
175; preparing wares for the mar- 
ket, 174; promotion on teacher's 
judgment requires supervisory effi- 
ciency, 176; promotion tests poor 
teaching tests, 179; reliability of 
teachers, 176; results enter into 
teacher's judgment, 178; super- 
visory tests, 178-180; teacher's 
estimates, 175; teaching tests, 
177; testimony as to results of 



change, 175; the system for the 
pupil, 181; written examinations, 
uses of results, 172. 

Promotion of pupils, 172-177. 

Psychical activity, 13. 

Psychical and physical phenomena, 
16. 

Psychical changes in childhood, 18. 

Psychical knowledge, value of, 15. 

Psychology, basis of teaching art, 1 3 ; 
child psychology, 17; has light for 
the teacher, 21; in primary in- 
struction, 17; modern, 15; no new 
psychology, 13, 14; not exclusively 
introspective, 14; of the "arm- 
chair," 15; physiological, 14; 
psychical changes, 18, 36; science 
of, 13; sources of psychical knowl- 
edge, 20; value of, 14, 15, 17. 

Pupils in classes, teaching, 143-159 
(see Teaching). 

Questions, character of, 96; distribu- 
tion of, 144; not ambiguous, 96; 
not leading, 97; sequence of, 144; 
teaching and testing, 143. 

Quick, Robert Herbert, 94. 

Rational algebra, 270. 

Ratio, idea of, 244. 

Reading circles, children's, 117. 

Reading, double, action in, 137. 

Reading, first lessons in, 195-203; 
association of sounds and letters, 
199; blackboard lessons, 195, 196; 
classification of words, 201 ; coarse 
hand at first, 202; diacritical 
marks, 202; first phonic drills, 
198; free reading by children, 
204; good literature should be 
read, 206; good reading habits, 
206; limit in use of word method, 
197; modified vowels, 200; mo- 
tive for reading, 206; phonic diffi- 
culties in English words, 199; 
obscure vowels, 200; reading in 
second and third readers, 203; 
script or print, 195; sentence 
reading, 197; sight reading, 205; 
study of lessons, 205 ; summary of 
steps, 202; syllabic analysis, 201; 
syllabic drills, 200; test reading les- 



XXI 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



sons, 204; the purpose of reading, 
207; the stress on thought read- 
ing, 204; too much reading to be 
avoided, 207; true order in board 
lessons, 196; type combination of 
letters, 201 ; union of special 
methods, 195; word mastery first 
step, 197; word method at first, 
197; words as sounds first, 198; 
writing in first lessons, 196; writ- 
ing new words, 202. 

Reading in higher grades, 207, 209; 
best literature to be read, 209; 
concentration of attention on sub- 
ject-matter, 209; information 
readers, 209; not an omnium 
gatherum, 208; preparatory in- 
struction, 208; two-fold purpose 
in reading drill, 207. 

Reading, primary, 183-194; a-b-c 
method, the, 186; acts included 
in reading, 185; automatic habits, 
185, 186; diacritical marks, 190, 
202; early use of word method in 
Cleveland, 190; Leigh type, 188; 
limited use of method, 193; no 
one of special methods complete, 
193; phonic method, the, 188; 
Pitman's Phonetic System, 189; 
principles, 183-185; Robinson's 
Phonic System, 189; sentence 
method, the, 191; sentences not 
read, 191; special methods, 186- 
194; syllabic method, the, 187, 
201; syllabic phones, 187; syn- 
thetic method, the, 189; the unit 
of language, 192; thought method, 
the, 192; two views, 183; word 
method, the, 190, 197. 

Realization of ideals, 47. 

Recitation, the, 55, 127. 

Recitation and study, the, 130. 

Reclassification of pupils, 141. 

Reduction of subjects in arithmetic, 
263, 264. 

Reforms in promotion and classifica- 
tion, 181. 

Repetitio ?nater studioriim, 85. 

Repetition and practice, 45, 53, 
84. 

Repetition of series of acts, 46. 

Repetition, word, 82, 84. 



Reproduction of lessons by pupils, 

112-115. 
Reproduction of stories, 234. 
Review drills in geography, 287. 
Reviews, 115; written reviews, 115. 
Royce, Josiah, ii, 14. 
Rules in art training, 50. 
Rules of technical grammar, 50. 
Rules through processes, 260. 
Rural school, individual work in, 140. 
Rural school problem, the, 141. 
Rural schools, language training in, 

239, 240. 

School arts, skill in, 81. 

School education, 9. 

School studies, comparative value 
of, 42. 

School training, 16, 

Science of arithmetic, 263. 

Science of education, Bain's, 9. 

Science of ethics, 16. 

Science of psychology, 13. 

Scientific instruction, 35, 37, 262. 

Scientific knowledge, 35, 37, 58, 
262, 295. 

Scientific value of child study, 19; 
of syllabi averages, 20. 

Script or print, 195. 

Self-activity, 10; in play, 47. 

Sensations and myths, 103. 

Sense to reason, 37. 

Sensing numbers, 244. 

Sentence method, the, 191. 

Sentence reading, 197. 

Separate treatment of teaching, 10. 

Sequence of facts, 107. 

Series of language exercises, five, 
223, 224. 

Sight reading, 205. 

Simultaneous method, the, 154-156. 

Sir Oracle on text-books, 1 1 7. 

Skill as an end, 30, 31. 

Skill, principle three, 43-5 1; art 
phase of imitation, 47; automatic 
action in series, 46; automatic 
habit, 45 ; automatic practice sub- 
versive of skill, 49; essential step 
in teaching art, 148; forming of 
correct ideals, 48; ideals in learn- 
ing the arts, 48; imagination in 
imitation, 47; imitation in in- 



INDEX. 



Xlll 



fancy, 47; imitation, instinctive 
and voluntary, 46; knowledge of 
processes, 49; memory imitation, 
46; motor impulse, 47; modeling 
and molding, 50; no art Icarnecl 
by practice, 49; psychical facts, 
45; realizations of ideals, 47; 
repetition and practice, 45; repe- 
tition of series of acts, 46; rules 
in art training, 50; rules in learn- 
ing the art of language, 50; self- 
activity in play, 47; skill in real- 
izing ideals, 49; the Comenian 
maxim a half-truth, 48. 

Skill tested by doing or action, 93. 

Skimming books, 1 1 8. 

Socrates, 65. 

Socratic method, 62, 65. 

Soul power the abiding result, 44. 

South America, 285. 

Spasmodic pressure, 171. 

Special methods, 80; of reading, 
186-194. 

Special topics in geography, 292. 

Specimens of tests, 93, 119. 

Spencer, Herbert, 217. 

Spiral theory of teaching, 38. 

Stencil maps and traced outlines, 
290. 

Steps in teaching language, 221, 222. 

Steps in teaching numbers, 246. 

Stories, 212; from outlines, 235. 

Story exercises, 233-235. 

Study intensive reading, 119. 

Study of things, 62. 

Subjective ends, 13. 

Subject-matter, presentation of, 136. 

Suliot, T. E., 235. 

Superficial empiricist, 43. 

Superficial study, 126. 

Supervisory tests, 178, 179. 

"Syllabic analysis, 201. 

Syllabic drills, 200. 

Syllabic method, the, 187. 

Syllabic power, 187. 

Synthetic method, the, 72, 73, 189. 

Systematic study, 98. 

Teacher, occasioner of activity, 10, 

39- 
Teacher's judgment in promoting 
pupils, 176. 



Teacher's preparation for oral teach- 
ing, 105; fidelity to preparation, 
no. 

Teaching, adaptation to psychical 
changes, 18, 36; aimless teaching, 
22; as an art, 10; axiom of teach- 
ing, 36; definition of, 9; separate 
treatment, 10; the art of arts, 22. 

Teaching appliances in physical 
geography, 296. 

Teaching ends immediate, 11. 

Teaching exercises, lessons and reci- 
tations, 57. 

Teaching processes, 52-57; union 

of, 54, 55. 
Teaching pupils in classes, 143-159; 
abuse of concert method, 155; 
bad influence of poor class teach- 
ing, 157; calling pupils by num- 
bers, 153; character of questions, 
143; children's voices in reading 
and singing, 156; class exercise 
made a fine mental drill, 149 ; 
class teaching as an art, 156; con- 
secutive method, 145-148; distri- 
bution of questions and topics, 
144; extremes in institute man- 
agement, 157; fitting questions to 
pupils, 150; geometrical diagram, 
152; inspiration exercises, 158; 
instruction fired at a class, 158; 
Lancaster system, 85, 154; limited 
use of concert method, 154; 
methods of calling on pupils, 
144; normal institutes, 157; out- 
lines of an institute performance, 
157; personal influence and 
power, 158; poor class teaching 
in school and college, 158; "pri- 
mary tone," 155; promiscuous 
method, 148-153; proper distri- 
bution of questions and topics, 
150 ; questions, teaching, and 
testing, 143; semi-musical tones, 
155; sequence of questions, 144; 
simultaneous method, 154-156; 
skillful union of methods, 153; 
undivided attention of entire class, 
144 ; unequal participation in class 
work, 151; voice in concert drills, 
155; weakness of concert method, 
154. 



XIV 



THE ART OF TEACHING. 



Teaching tests, 177. 

Technical algebra, 269. 

Telling method, the, 67. 

Tendency, unwise, 17. 

Terms in pedagogy, proper use of, 

Testjthe, 53, 90-101 ; English gram- 
mar not a form study, 92; "ex- 
amination knowledge," 94; eye 
of teaching, 90; formal test exer- 
cises, their importance, 90; im- 
portance of testing power and 
skill, 94; incidental testing, not 
sufficient, 90; influence of tests 
on instruction, 94; influence of 
tests on pupil's study, 95; its pur- 
pose or function, 90; knowledge 
tested by its application or use, 
91 ; knowledge tested by its ex- 
pression, 91 ; memoriter expres- 
sion uncertain, 91 ; power tested 
by its exercise, 92; power to 
analyze sentences tested by their 
analysis, 92; skill tested by doing 
or action, 93; specimens poor 
test of manual skill, 93; time ele- 
ment in skill, 93; verbal memory, 
91 ; word drawing not writing, 

93. 

Testing, modes of, 95-101 ; advan- 
tages of question method, 95; 
ambiguous questions, 96; asking 
questions from a book, 99; cate- 
chetic and topic methods com- 
pared, 98; catechetic and topic 
tests, 95; character of questions, 
96; chorus singing as a test, loi; 
directions as tests of power and 
skill, 99 ; leading questions worth- 
less as tests, 97; proper use of an 
author's questions, 100; questions 
poor tests of expression, 97; skill- 
ful use of topic method, 100; 
systematic unfolding of subject, 
96; testing a difficult art, 99; 
testing as an art, loi ; test ques- 
tions, 95; the concert test mis- 
leading, 100, loi; the oral test, 
100 ; thoroughness, 95; topic 
method a good test of expression, 
98. 

lest reading lessons, 204. 



Text-book, lessons in, 284. 
Text-books, errors in use of, 128; 

proper use of, 121, 122. 
Text-books, study of, 117-129 (see 

Book Study). 
Thought method, the, 192. 
Thought reading, 204. 
Time in skill, 93. 
Tongue before the pen, the, 212. 
Traced outline maps, 290. 
Training book power, 124. 
Training maxim, 64. 
Training method, the, 64. 
Trinity of ends, 26. 

Ultimate ends, 9. 

Ultimate unity, ii. 

Undivided attention of pupils, 144. 

Unequal progress of pupils, 141. 

Unification in teaching, 79. 

Union of instruction and study, 119; 
of methods, 70, 153; of oral and 
written processes, 260; of pro- 
cesses, 194, 195, 211, 260. 

Unit of language, the, 192. 

United States, 285. 

United States History, 299-301; 
earlier introductory lessons, 299; 
first year's systematic course, 
299; historic conceptions difficult, 
300; history of peoples, 300; 
Hobbes's Leviathan, 300; oral in- 
struction in history, 300; reading 
the key to history, 299; supple- 
mented by biography, 299; the 
history of the nation, 299; the 
state as a collective man, 300; 
training afforded in book mastery, 
299; use of maps and illustra- 
tions, 299. 

Universal truths, 63. 

Utilitarianism, narrow, 44. 

Utility of knowledge, 28. 

Value of geography, 273. 
Value of philosophy, 12. 
Verbal memory, 91. 
Vertical writing, 162. 
Views of reading, two, 183. 
Visualizing numbers, 244. 
Vital organs, anatomy of, 305. 
Voice in concert exercises, the, 155. 



INDEX. 



XV 



Voices, children's, in reading and 

singing, 156. 
Vowels, modified and obscure, 200. 

Wadsworth, James, 36, 86. 

Whitney, W. D., 217. 

Woolsey, Theodore, 70, 118. 

Word drawing, 93. 

Word method, the, 190, 197. 

Word repetition, 82, 84. 

Writing new words, 196; first les- 
sons in, 211. 

Written examinations, 172-175. 

Written exercises, 160-171; amount 
of written work, 165; ancillary 
muscles, 162; assigned home 
study, 166; careless written work, 
169; changes in activity, 167; 
correct use of written forms, 169; 
early writing in modern schools, 
161 ; examination marks as ends, 
171 ; excessive use of pen and 
pencil, 162, 163; feasible v '"ten 
work, 167; home lesso'^. 164; 
Hudson River valley, 164; in- 
creasing nervousness, 163; injury 
to pupils, 163; keeping pupils 
busy, 164; oral expression before 



written, 167; overtasking pupils, 
166; pothook assumption, 161; 
preparing lessons in writing, 163; 
reproductive lessons, 168; school 
pressure hot spasmodic, 171 ; 
spelling drills, oral and written, 
168; supervision of home work, 
166; testimony of physiology, 
161 ; tests not to be made a bug- 
bear, 171; too much required, 
165; too much writing in elemen- 
tary schools, 162; union of oral 
and written tests, 160, 171; use 
of pen and pencil, 160; variety of 
work, 167; vertical writing, 162; 
writing in old-time schools, 161 ; 
written examinations for promo- 
tion of pupils, 160; written 
solution of mental problems ob- 
jectionable, 168; written tests, 169, 
170; written work at home, 163. 

Written forms, skill in use of, 220. 

Written outlines of oral lessons, 107. 

Written reviews, 115. 

Written tests, 94. 

Written work, correct, 116. 

Ziller's central core, 77, iiS. 



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White's Geometry 

By JOHN MACNIE, A.M. 

Edited by Emerson E.White, A.M., LL.D., Author of "White's 
Series of Mathematics," " White's School Management," etc. 

White's Elements of Geometry — Plane and Solid . . . $1 25 
White's Elements of Plane Geometry — Separate ... .75 

White's Key to Elements of Geometry . . . . .1.00 



This New Geometry is specially designed for use in High Schools, 
Academies, and College Preparatory Schools. In scope, it is sufficiently 
elementary for beginners in the study and complete enough to meet 
fully the entrance requirements of Colleges, Universities, and Technical 
Schools. 

As a text-book it represents the best ideals and results of sound 
mathematical instruction. An endeavor has been made to present the 
elements of Geometry with a logical strictness approaching that of 
Euclid, while taking advantage of such improvements in arrangement 
and notation as are suggested by modern experience. In its preparation 
the authors have adopted as guiding principles : (i) to leave no obscure 
term undefined ; (2) to assume nothing not perfectly evident ; (3) to 
prove everything at all doubtful by reference to admitted principles. 
Great care has been taken in the wording of the definitions. In 
the case of a few terms for which no definitions quite free from objection 
have as yet been proposed, those have been chosen which are best suited 
to the comprehension of the beginner. The usual order of treatment 
has been followed and only such propositions and corollaries have been 
admitted as are important in themselves or have a bearing on subsequent 
demonstrations and studies. 

Exercises for original and laboratory work have been carefully 
selected with a view to exemplifying important principles, and are, with 
few exceptions, of such slight difficulty as not to discourage the learner 
of average ability. The working exercises are graded and in the first 
sets ample assistance is afforded the student by means of references and 
diagrams. 



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White's School Algebra 

Designed for use in High Sciiools and Academies. By Emkrson 
E. White, A.M., LL.D., Author of "A Series of Mathe- 
matics," "Elements of Pedagogy," "School Management," etc. 

Half Leather, 12mo, 394 pages . . . $1.00 
I'his new Algebra combines in one book a complete course in the 
study, sufficiently elementary for beginners and comprehensive enough to 
fully meet the entrance requirements of the best colleges and universities. 
The book constitutes a part of the well-known and popular " White's 
Series of Mathematics." Its author has long been distinguished as an 
educational lecturer and writer of the highest ability and is a recognized 
leader in the teaching profession in this country. 

It has been the author's aim to prepare a School Algebra which 
should be pedagogically sound, as well as mathematically accurate, and 
thoroughly adequate for its place and purpose. He has kept in mind 
the fact that the great majority of the pupils who begin the study of 
Algebra are too young to master successfully a text-book designed for 
advanced students. 

Some of the distinctive features of this book are : (i) The early 
introduction and practical use of the equation ; (2) the use of arithmet- 
ical approaches to algebraic processes and principles ; (3) the intelligent 
use of the inductive method ; (4) the immediate application of facts 
and principles in simple exercises for practice ; (5) the number, variety, 
and character of the exercises and problems designed to secure facility 
and accuracy in algebraic processes. 



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receipt of the price. 

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For Teachers and School Officers 



KING'S SCHOOL INTERESTS AND DUTIES 

Developed from " Page's Mutual Duties of Parents and Teachers," 
from various Public Records and Documents, and from the Bulletins 
of the National Bureau of Education. By Robert M. King. 

Cloth, 12mo, 336 pages $1.00 

This new work, original in its scope and plan, presents in one 
volume interesting and valuable expositions of the modern demands, 
best methods, and most important interests of our Public School 
Systems, Its central idea is to show the importance and value of 
co-operation in school work and the mutual duties of teachers, school 
officers, and parents. It also embodies synopses of the discussions on 
leading educational topics from the various fugitive reports and manuals 
issued, from time to time, by school officials and State Departments of 
Education. It will be found an invaluable manual and guide for 
school superintendents, officers, and patrons, and, indeed, for every one 
interested in educational work. 

MANN'S SCHOOL RECREATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS 

By Charles W. Mann, A.M., Dean of the Chicago Academy. 

Cloth, 12mo, 352 pages $1.00 

This volume not only opens up a new field of much needed informa- 
tion and direction in the matter of physical training of pupils, but also 
furnishes suggestions for intellectual recreations which will greatly add 
to the interest and value of school work and lend a charm to school life 
in all its phases. Some of the subjects treated in this work are: Morning 
Exercises, Care and Equipment of Schoolrooms, Singing Games and 
Songs, Indoor Exercises and Outdoor Games, Experiments in Physics 
and Chemistry, Recreations in Latin, Outline for Reading Circles, etc. 



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the price by the Publishers : 

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Halleck's Psychology and 
Psychic Culture 

By REUBEN TOST HALLECK, M.A. (Yale) 
Cloth, 12mo, 368 pages. Illustrated .... Price $125 



This new text-book in Psychology and Psychic Culture 
is suitable for use in High School, Academy and College 
classes, being simple and elementary enough for beginners 
and at the same time complete and comprehensive enough 
for advanced classes in the study. It is also well suited 
for private students and general readers, the subjects being 
treated in such an attractive manner and relieved by so 
many apt illustrations and examples as to fix the attention 
and deeply impress the mind. 

The work includes a full statement and clear exposition 
of the coordinate branches of the study — physiological and 
introspective psychology. The physical basis of Psychol- 
ogy is fully recognized. Special attention is given to 
the cultivation of the mental faculties, making the work 
practically useful for self-improvement. The treatment 
throughout is singularly clear and plain and in harmony 
with its aims and purpose, 

" Halleck's Psychology pleases me very much. It is short, clear, 
interesting, and full of common sense and originality of illustration. 
1 can sincerely recommend it." 

WILLIAM JAMES, 
Professor of Psychology, Harvard University. 



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receipt of the price by the Publishers : 



American Book Company 



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Manual of the Constitution of the 
United States 



By ISRAEL WARD ANDREWS, D.D., LL.D. 
Late President of Marietta College 

Resets aitd Revised to igoi by 
HOMER MORRIS, LL.B., of the Cincinnati Bar. 

Cloth, 12mo, 431 pages Price, $1.00 

The development of Civil Government in the United States during 
the past twenty-five years has rendered necessary the thorough revision 
and resetting of Andrews's Manual of the Constitution — a text-book 
which, in spite of numerous competitors published during the past decade, 
has continually increased in favor with teachers and students. 

The book has been brought up to date in all particulars — including 
especially the more recent interpretations of the Constitution by the 
courts, and the important statutes calculated to produce permanent 
political effect. The utmost care, however, has been taken to keep to 
the original design of the book; and those familiar with the work will 
find that no violence has been done to its original character. 

Andrews's Manual grew out of the necessities and experiences of 
the class room. For the proper instruction of the student in the im- 
portant subject of Civil Government, a clear exposition of the great 
principles of the Constitution is needed, with a summary of the legislative 
provisions in which they have been embodied. The author embodied in 
the work that kind — and, so far as space would allow, that amount — of 
information on the various topics which an intelligent citizen would 
desire to possess. 

As the value of a work of this kind depends in large measure upon 
its accuracy, it is proper to say that in nearly every instance the state- 
ments touching the legislation or other action of the government have 
been taken from official publications. 



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OCT 19 mm 



